User:Diamond Unicorn 22/sandbox
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| Industry | Telecommunications, Technology |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder | Rameez Ansar, Adeel Najam and Abhishek Gupta |
| Headquarters | Singapore |
| Brands | Circles.Life, Circles X, Pareteum MVNE |
Number of employees | 600 - 700 |
| Website | www.circles.co |
Circles is a telecommunications technology company that was founded in 2014. Headquartered in Singapore, the company has operations in 14 markets across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. The company operates three businesses - Circles.Life its mobile virtual network operator business, Circles X, its cloud-native software-as-a-service business and Pareteum, its mobile virtual network enabler business.
History
[edit]2014
- Circles.Life was founded by three co-founders, Rameez Ansar, Adeel Najam and Abhishek Gupta. The company was later rebranded to Circles in 2023.
2016 - 2020
- May 2016: Circles.Life launched as Singapore’s forth telecommunications company and first digital telco brand, leasing its network from M1. [1]
- February 2019: Circles announced investment funding by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA). [2]
- June 2019: Circles.Life expanded into its first overseas market, Taiwan, leasing its network from ChungHwa Telecom.[3]
- June 2019: Circles.Life announced investment funding by Singapore's Government-linked EDBI and Founders Fund.[4]
- August 2019: Circles.Life expanded to its second overseas market, Australia, leasing its network from Optus.
- February 2020: Circles.Life announced investment funding by Warburg Pincus. [5]
- March 2020: Circles.Life partnered XL Axiata Indonesia, to launch its first MVNE brand, Live.On, under a build-operate-transfer model.
- March 2020: INSEAD Business School interviewed Circles.Life and published the business case study 'Circles.Life Business Model Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship in Telecommunications'.[6]
2021 - 2023
- September 2021: Circles.Life partnered KDDI Digital Life, to launch KDDI Corporation's first digital telco brand, povo2.0. Customers can subscribe to a “0” JPY base plan and tailor their plans by opting for their preferred “toppings”, such as the DAZN entertainment service.[7]
- December 2021: Circles.Life bought back US$5 million worth of stocks held by employees [8]
- February 2022: Circles.Life launched its first research and development centre in Singapore.[9]
- July 2022: Circles.Life acquires the Mobile Virtual Network Enabler business of Pareteum, a US-based cloud software communications platform company with operations in multiple regions around the world.[10]
- November 2022: Circles.Life launched Jetpac, the eSIM travel plan that provides hyper convenience for frequent travellers.[11]
- January 2023: Harvard Business School Faculty of Research interviewed Circles.Life and published the business case study 'Circles.Life at a CrossRoads of Growth'.[12]
- January 2023: The company rebranded its corporate name to Circles.
- May 2023: Circles signed a joint venture with Middle East telco giant e& international, to help e&'s network of mobile network operators to launch digital telco brands.[13]
- July 2023: Circles and KDDI Digital Life's povo2.0 announced that it has achieved a net-promoter-score (a key measurement of customer satisfaction) of +30, higher than industry benchmark in Japan.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ Ho, Victoria (5 May 2016). "Singapore's fourth mobile operator launches with plans for the data-hungry". Mashable.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Sequoia-backed Singapore telco Circles.Life to invest over $250 million in overseas push". Reuters. 14 February 2019.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Navin, Sregantan (14 February 2019). "Circles.Life to expand into Taiwan, Australia in 2019". The Business Times.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Abudheen K, Sainul (6 June 2019). "Circles.Life to go global with investment from EDBI and Facebook's early investor". e27.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Poh, Olivia (11 February 2020). "Digital telco startup Circles.Life bags funding from Warburg Pincus". The Business Times.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ P. Davis, Jason; Vo, Minh; Yang, Anne (5 March 2020). "Circles.Life: Business Model Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship in Telecommunications". INSEAD Publishing.
- ^ "auのオンライン専用ブランドpovoに新プラン「povo2.0」が登場 月額基本料0円から開始". IT Media. 14 September 2021.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Bautista, Roehl Niño (13 December 2021). "Circles Life to buy back $5m worth of ESOPs". Tech In Asia.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Ooi, Clement (25 February 2022). "S'pore telco firm Circles Global launches new R&D Centre, which will create 120 ICT jobs". Vulcan Post.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "SINGAPORE'S CIRCLES GLOBAL ACQUIRES PARETEUM TO ACCELERATE GROWTH IN GLOBAL DIGITAL TELCO SAAS MARKET". Technode Global. 28 July 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Salim, Zafirah (8 November 2022). "Telco to travel: Circles.Life's new subscription plan lets you "roam like a local" from $10/mth". Vulcan Post.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Alcácer, Juan; Wong, Adina (December 2022). "Circles.Life at a Crossroads of Growth". Harvard Business School.
- ^ "SEQUOIA-BACKED CIRCLES FORMS JOINT VENTURE WITH MIDDLE EAST TELCO FIRM E& FOR DIGITAL SERVICES". Technode Global. 25 May 2023.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "KDDI Digital Life, Japan's digital telco, achieves high customer satisfaction score with Circles". Yahoo Finance. 6 July 2023.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)