Carousell is a mobile-first peer-to-peer selling app that operates across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. Founded by three graduates of the National University of Singapore, the company has expanded its listings into automotive and real estate and monetizes those verticals while keeping its core service free. Prior to this deal Carousell had raised $126.8 million, including an $85 million round that closed in May 2018. The transaction with OLX values Carousell at $560 million based on OLX acquiring a 10% stake for $56 million. The deal also includes the transfer of OLX Philippines to Carousell, bringing six million registered users and a migration expected to be finalized by the second half of 2019. Management said the Naspers/OLX investment will help accelerate Carousell’s regional leadership and its work on technology and AI to improve value, trust and convenience for users. Carousell operates a mobile-first consumer-to-consumer marketplace that lets users list and sell unwanted items; the platform has facilitated the sale of over 50 million items and currently hosts 144 million listings. It has expanded into verticals including cars, property, jobs, services and finance, and is growing premium offerings in automotive and real estate. The primary C2C portion remains free, but the company has begun to monetize through advertising, promoted listings/spotlight ads, cost-per-click ads and partnerships such as financial services and travel insurance. Carousell is investing in AI to improve buyer-seller matching and is focused on expanding premium verticals beyond Singapore into markets like Indonesia and Thailand, with discussions of global expansion “in the next year or so.” Hiring and building engineering talent is a strategic priority; the company already has over 100 product engineers across multiple offices. Management has said there are no immediate plans for an IPO. Carousell operates a mobile-first classifieds app (iOS and Android) with a chat-style interface and photo uploads that connect buyers and sellers directly. The service prides itself on a lightweight, Craigslist-for-mobile experience where users arrange sales and payments themselves; Carousell does not currently monetize the service. The company reports roughly 35 million listings, about 70 new listings added per minute, and average users spend 17 minutes in the app. Today it spans five countries — Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia — and is focused on further international expansion, including markets outside Southeast Asia. Carousell has over 90 staff with around 24 engineers and plans to double its engineering headcount by the end of the year to improve search, buyer-seller matching and reduce spam. The team says the immediate priority is product and geographic growth rather than near-term monetization, though it expects to bring in revenue later. Carousell is a mobile app marketplace that lets sellers upload items with a few taps, use built-in photo-editing, and communicate with buyers via private messaging. Launched in 2012, the app has logged over 8 million listings and 2 million completed transactions, averaging eight transactions closing every minute. It has held the number one shopping app spot in Singapore’s iOS App Store since June. The company is still exploring monetization, including premium seller features and tools for small businesses. Carousell plans to hire growth and web engineers to support expansion into Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan, and says it has broader APAC ambitions including Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. As it scales, the team will add moderation tools to remove fraudulent users and improve its feedback system, and will test desktop-first strategies in some markets. Carousell offers a mobile-first marketplace where users create listings by taking a photo and writing a brief description, with mobile-optimized web pages for each listing. The app includes photo filters, Facebook and Twitter integration, and a private chat feature that buyers and sellers use to arrange payment and delivery. The startup targets women aged 16–34 and says its community has created a million listings, about 20% of which get purchased; early adopters open the app roughly 10 times per day and spend about 24 minutes in it. Carousell’s inventory is largely fashion and beauty, secondhand tech gadgets, and handcrafted items. The company plans to add in-app payment options to enable credit-card transactions and is exploring monetization via premium features and transaction fees. The founding team demoed the first version at Startup Weekend Singapore in March 2012 and began working on the app full-time two months later.

Total raised

$183M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Apr 2019