Carousell would rather serve a billion people than make a billion dollars

Carousell co-founder and CEO Siu Rui Quek on stage at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016. Photo credit: Tech in Asia / Michael Holmes.

Ask a startup founder what the initial vision behind their company was, and more likely than not they will say, “to solve a problem.” That’s what entrepreneurs like to bill themselves as; problem-solvers who make the world a better place with their ideas.

Carousell CEO Siu Rui Quek is no exception. On stage at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016, the co-founder of the Singaporean mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace told our David Corbin he was an online selling geek who just wanted an easier way for people to buy and sell stuff on the internet.

“We exist because we [Siu Rui and co-founders Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan] are three geeks who love technology and want to build things that help people solve problems,” he said. “That’s what kept us going and, with Carousell, we have a lifetime opportunity to do this.”

Squad goals

The startup is active across Southeast Asia and has just launched in Hong Kong. “From day 1 we’ve always been really focused on building a leading company, not because we wanted to make a billion dollars but because we wanted to help a billion people,” Siu Rui said.

He was an online selling geek who just wanted an easier way for people to buy and sell stuff on the internet.

How far the company is from reaching that goal isn’t clear, as Carousell generally doesn’t share user numbers. This time was no exception, with Siu Rui only sharing that the marketplace has over 35 million listings and “millions of users.”

Asked about why startups tend to guard their user numbers so closely, Siu Rui replied that in Carousell’s case, the founders had a slow first year. “Tech blogs said focus on one core metric, so we wondered which one that was for us,” he said.

The team decided that if there was one metric that was material to their sense of progress and success, it was the number of product listings on their platform.

Marketplace wars

Carousell recently raised a series B round worth US$35 million from Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India, 500 Startups, and Golden Gate Ventures. It gives the startup enough firepower to expand to a new market outside of Southeast Asia.

Siu Rui wouldn’t say which one but said the company likes to pick developed markets where there’s no mobile incumbent. Presumably that rules out Japan where mobile P2P marketplace Mercari reigns.

See: Japan’s hottest unicorn Mercari is charging into the US

Investor Rakuten Ventures has been backing Carousell from the beginning, even though its parent company launched a competing service called Rakuma, which entered Southeast Asia in early 2016. Singapore is also home to a competing app called Shopee, a subsidiary of local digital company Garena.

Siu Rui isn’t too concerned about that. “That’s further validation for us,” he said. “Saemin [Ahn, Rakuten Ventures managing partner,] has been a big supporter from day 1 and he’s the first one who reports bugs to me.”

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