CircleLoop, a cloud-based phone system for business, has announced it is set to scale operations, having secured an initial seed funding round of £1.5m.

This digitally-led start-up is aiming to take on traditional telecoms providers with its Software-as-a-Service approach and easy to use, self-service applications to power modern-day business telephony. The company’s founders, Damian Hanson and David Hague, believe the product’s efficiency and adaptability will challenge existing market offerings.

CircleLoop aims to bring fresh thinking to the telecoms industry; an industry that the company’s founders believe remains too complex and confusing for most businesses. They believe this is due to significantly change in the coming years, however, as CircleLoop is entering the market at a time when the shift to ‘cloud-based’ communications is accelerating at a significant pace.

Co-founder Damian Hanson comments: “We believe the telecoms market in the UK remains painful and unnecessarily expensive for many businesses. With CircleLoop, we believe we’re developing something that will be truly different in the market. At last, there’s a telecoms challenger that will confront the ‘norms’ we have, until now, just had to accept.”

The business is not burdened or slowed by the legacy infrastructure restrictions experienced by established telecoms vendors. Agile and progressive, CircleLoop allows users to simply use applications on their existing desktop computers and mobile devices, turning them into an instant business phone system with powerful features. Commercially, CircleLoop remains competitive by offering its entire system with unlimited outbound calls for just £15 per user in a pure SaaS month-to-month flexible model.

Having been in beta for most of 2017, CircleLoop is now on-boarding new customers quickly having recently released its new desktop apps for Mac and Windows and launched improved UX in its iOS and Android mobile apps.

It is now planning to use its funding to accelerate its growth in the UK market, integrating CircleLoop into other complementary SaaS products, starting with a core focus on CRM tools. It has also recently introduced other in-demand features such as contact synchronisation, internal call transfer, international call reach, conference calling, team productivity, expanded use of machine learning and there is much more to come in the next few months.

The business is also making significant headway with a number of hefty partnership deals. It recently joined forces with leading e-commerce platform EKM - which hosts a fifth of Britain’s online shops - to become its preferred telephony partner. Through its partnership with CircleLoop, it is now able to offer professional business telephony to its 25,000 customers.

Co-founder David says: “Whilst we are just getting started with our vision for CircleLoop we believe we have already developed something which is being welcomed in the market and we look forward to working closely with our valued customers and partners to make CircleLoop a next generation telco.”

CircleLoop has undergone a raft of additional new changes to facilitate its growth plans. Its founders have invested in a new, modern HQ in Rossendale, Lancashire, boasting chill-out areas, table tennis and a fully-equipped gym. In addition, a number of senior management hires have been made. Sean Ingham joins as Technical Manager, Matt Cowell as Head of Marketing and Ben Jemison as General Manager.

To find out more about CircleLoop, visit www.circleloop.com