Singapore’s Circles.Life enters Australia with Optus partnership

Singapore-based Circles.Life has signed a strategic partnership with telco Optus to offer its services in Australia. This is the second foreign market for Circles.Life after Taiwan.

Australians can now use a flexible plan from Circles.Life that offers bill shock protection, straightforward pricing, and no long-term contract, the company said in a statement.

According to a report, telco complaints in Australia have remained at a rate of six complaints per 10,000 services in operation, 40% of which are customer service complaints.

The Singapore-based telco promises efficient customer service for Australian customers, with real people responding to queries at a response time of 20 to 27 seconds through its in-app live chat.

Its services rely on Circles-X, its proprietary software platform in the cloud that allows the company to be agile and flexible. Circles.Life has already expanded beyond telco in Singapore, creating digital lifestyle and insurance products, with “more in the pipeline.”

It claims to have grown its subscriber base by more than 9x between Q1 2017 and Q1 2019. It also said it has gained a market share of more than 5% in Singapore since its launch in 2016.

In February, it secured an undisclosed amount of series C investment from Sequoia India to fuel its expansion efforts towards five new markets, including Australia and Taiwan. It said it was looking to spend nearly US$37 million for each market launch.