Circles And Airwallex Partner To Bring Embedded Finance To Telecom Operators Across 70+ Countries

Circles, the Singapore-based global technology company focused on the telecom sector, has announced a strategic partnership with fintech platform Airwallex to integrate embedded financial services into its CirclesX SaaS platform, making digital banking capabilities available to telecom operators across more than 70 countries.

The partnership centres on FinX, an embedded financial services stack built natively into the CirclesX platform.

Powered by Airwallex's payments and financial infrastructure, FinX is designed to allow telecom operators to offer services including global payouts, travel cards, supplier payments, and expense management, without building or managing their own financial infrastructure or obtaining their own regulatory licences.
 

The CirclesX platform has previously been deployed by operators including KDDI, e&, and AT&T to launch digital mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) across Asia and South America, and by Telkomsel in Indonesia to overhaul its digital operations.
 

Airwallex holds more than 80 licences and permits globally and operates in partnership with Visa. The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with over 2,000 employees across 26 offices, and serves more than 200,000 businesses worldwide.
 

The partnership comes as telecom operators face increasing pressure from the commoditisation of connectivity services, with many seeking to diversify revenue through adjacent digital services. The FinX model allows operators to leverage existing know-your-customer (KYC) infrastructure to access transactional revenue streams from payments and remittances.
 

Awais Malik, Chief Growth Officer, Circles

Awais Malik, Chief Growth Officer, Circles said:

“At Circles, we're continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation for the industry beyond just core telco products and we are confident that embedded financial products will power the next phase of revenue growth for telcos. With Airwallex's fintech expertise, we've built a globally scalable financial services stack embedded in our platform, making it seamless for any telco organisation to launch and scale financial products or services with zero licensing and infrastructure hassles.”

Arnold Chan, General Manager, Asia-Pacific, Airwallex

Arnold Chan, General Manager, Asia-Pacific, Airwallex commented:

“Telecom operators sit at the centre of their customers' daily lives, but connectivity alone is no longer enough to drive long-term growth. By partnering with Circles and integrating with the CirclesX platform, we're enabling operators to embed trusted, global financial services directly into their digital experiences - unlocking new revenue streams, deeper engagement and stronger customer lifetime value at scale.”

Circles' consumer MVNO brand in Singapore, Circles.Life, has been operating two FinX-powered products: a semi-open wallet and a cashback card. The wallet, available in select channels, is reported to have driven 40% incremental subscriber growth through PayNow top-ups and peer-to-peer transfers.

The Circles.Life cashback card, offered as part of its Zerofy cashback programme, has seen a fivefold increase in monthly transactions per user and a tenfold rise in monthly spend, alongside a 30-point year-on-year improvement in customer net promoter score (NPS).

Circles was founded in 2014 and is backed by investors including Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia), Warburg Pincus, Founders Fund, and EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board. In addition to its SaaS business, Circles operates Circles.Life, Circles Aspire (a Communications Platform-as-a-Service provider), and Jetpac (a travel eSIM and connectivity business).

Airwallex was founded in Melbourne in 2015 and holds licences across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
 

Circles has said it will begin rolling out the FinX platform to existing CirclesX customers and other operators in the coming weeks.
 

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