Jack Ellis · · 2 min readCircles.Life eyes international expansion following Sequoia India funding
Singapore mobile network operator Circles.Life has received investment from Sequoia India to fund its expansion beyond the city-state, it announced today.
Some of the Circles.Life team / Photo credit: Circles.Life
The company, which uses a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model to leverage existing telecom infrastructure and offer cut-price mobile services, is eyeing moves into Australia and Taiwan later this year.
The amount of the series C investment was not disclosed.
In a press release, Circles.Life said it plans to enter at least five new markets over the next 18 months, with operations in Taiwan and Australia set to launch in Q2 and Q3 2019, respectively. It will spend S$50 million (US$36.9 million) on each launch.
Circles.Life said in the statement that it has signed deals with “key networks which have the widest coverage in both countries.”
To drive this growth, the startup has hired Ajinkya Mukhopadhyay – previously joint head of Asian telecoms investment banking at UBS and former group head of M&A at Telstra – as head of business development and international expansion. Also joining the team is new head of international launches Waseem Yusaf, former head of global sales engagement, network planning and optimization, at Nokia.
Circles.Life claims to hold over 5 percent of Singapore’s mobile market in terms of subscribers. Yesterday, it announced it will drop its “20 for 20” add-on package, which gives users 20GB of mobile data for S$20 (US$14.70), due to “tight market competition.”
However, users who were informed of the discontinuation of the plan received messages from Circles.Life indicating that “something even better” is being lined up as a replacement. The company confirmed today that existing subscribers to the “20 for 20” plan will get unlimited data at the same price point.
In November 2018, the company unveiled its first move beyond telecom with Discover, an AI-powered discovery engine to help users find local events.
Currency converted from Singapore dollars. Rate: US$1 = S$1.36
Editing by Charmaine de Lazo
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