Singapore-based virtual telecommunications company Circles.Life announced today (February 11) that it had received an undisclosed sum of funds from the global private equity company Warburg Pincus in a round of shares.
The funding is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, based on Warburg Pincus' investment history listed on CrunchBase.
Warburg Pincus previously invested in the ride hail company Gojek and the retail analytics startup Trax, which is considered Singapore's second unicorn.
Combined with previous round financing, the combined capital will be used to gain a foothold in existing markets and expand into new ones.
In particular, two new markets are to be opened up by the end of this year, possibly in the Asia-Pacific region or in the Middle East.
At the beginning of last year, Circles.Life announced that it plans to launch in more than five countries over the next 18 months, with over $ 50 million invested in each market. It later started in Taiwan and Australia in 2019.
Circles.Life not only wants to open up new markets, but also to expand its “non-telecommunication” digital services.
Most recently, Circles.Life has partnered with Sistic to enable booking of local concerts and events through their mobile app. Separately, users can also search and book films in the app.
It also has Entertainer Partner lifestyle app to offer 1-for-1 deals for S $ 12 per month.
In the future, further lifestyle services such as content discovery and possibly even financial services are to be introduced.
"We see tremendous growth opportunities for Circles.Life, especially in the rapidly digitizing mobile communications market in the Asia-Pacific region," said Saurabh Agarwal, managing director at Warburg Pincus.
"In this new era, the industry hasn't adapted quickly enough to offer its customers a seamless experience, creating a large white space for technology-based challengers."
Selected image source: Mobile World Live
