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Telcos Technology

Circles.Life announces expansion into five Asia Pacific markets, including Taiwan and Australia

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By Shawn Lim, Reporter, Asia Pacific

February 14, 2019 | 3 min read

Singapore-based Circles.Life has announced it will be launching in Taiwan and Australia as part of its plans to enter at least five new markets over the next 18 months.

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Circles.Life has disrupted the telco market in Singapore and forced Singapore-based telcos to consolidate their business.

The digital telco will spend S$50 million (US$36.9 million) on each launch and has already signed deals with telco networks, which it did not name, in both countries. It claims it will be the first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to offer a 100% digital experience for customers in these markets.

Circles.Life has disrupted the telco market in Singapore and forced Singapore-based telcos to consolidate their business after garnering over 5% of the Singapore mobile subscriber market. The expansion plans come after it closed a Series C round of financing led by Sequoia India.

“Circles.Life was built on a mission to give power back to the customers. Because of this mission and our innovative digital platform, we've raised the bar in Singapore's telco space,” said Rameez Ansar, co-founder and chief executive officer of Circles.Life.

“The significant investment from a blue-chip venture capital firm is a testament to the impact we bring to the industry. We plan to offer more personalized digital services and revolutionize the telco industry globally, using our tech stack, Circles-X.”

According to Ansar, he tells The Drum at the press event that Circles.Life has already opened an office in Taiwan and hired local talent to run it, which means language will not be an issue. It will also be doing the same in Australia and the other markets it is looking to expand in.

In lieu of the expansion Circles.Life has hired Ajinkya Mukhopadhyay, who was most recently the director of group development international at Telstra, as the head of business development and international expansion. It has also tapped Waseem Yusaf from Nokia as its head of international launches.

The digital telco is no stranger to finding provocative and creative ways to express its message. It has previously released a ‘Brick Phone’, made up of real bricks packaged in smartphone boxes to shift perceptions of mobile users experience and shedding new light on what it means to be ‘data deprived’, in addition to ads in MRT stations.

It previously spoke to The Drum about how it got consumers to re-evaluate the value of a mobile contract and challenge the assumption that it always saves them money, by using the country’s favourite food, chicken rice, to prove its point.

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