In Singapore, Circles.Life plans to hire for roles such as software engineers, product managers and digital marketers
Digital telco Circles.Life plans to boost its Singapore headcount, which is currently close to 250, by 25 to 35 per cent over the next 12 months as it scales up its Circles X software offering.
Circles X is the proprietary technology stack that has allowed the company to launch quickly in Taiwan and Australia.
Circles.Life plans to acquire more customers for its integrated cloud-based platform as more telcos digitalise, co-founder Adeel Najam told The Business Times. Circles X operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue model.
Indonesia’s XL Axiata used Circles X to launch Live.On, a fully digital telco brand, in October last year. Circles.Life also has a partnership with KDDI in Japan, with a digital brand povo2.0 launched in September.
In Singapore, Circles.Life plans to hire for roles such as software engineers, product managers and digital marketers across new and existing business lines.
Early last year, the company laid off under 5 per cent of employees globally. Mr Najam said the retrenchments were made to fine-tune the model of operations as the company expanded internationally. For example, back-end operations were consolidated in the Philippines.
Despite the pandemic, Mr Najam maintained that the layoffs were not due to monetary pressure. He pointed out that the company had just raised funding from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Circles.Life last year underwent a restructuring exercise and incorporated its ultimate holding company in the Cayman Islands, corporate records show.
Circles.Life now employs over 450 staff in Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and South Asia. As part of its international expansion, the company has appointed tech industry veteran Stephanie Nash to the newly created role of chief people officer.
Ms Nash has more than two decades of global human resource experience in companies such as Microsoft, BHP and Allergan. She also oversaw the early stages of RedMart’s growth through to its acquisition by Alibaba-backed Lazada.
Other recent additions include Dhanush Hetti, former chief technology officer (CTO) at PayPal-owned Venmo, as CTO, and Mak Chee Kiong, former chief financial officer (CFO) at Singtel Group Digital Life, as CFO.
