Carousell kicks off 2019 with hires of former Amazon, RedMart, and SPH execs

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace Carousell has started the new year with a duo of big-name strategic appointments aimed at boosting its operational capabilities following a bumper 2018 of venture funding.

Tan Su Lin has been hired as Carousell’s vice president of operations, reporting directly to Quek Siu Rui, the company’s co-founder and CEO. She arrives after a 20-year career at media giant Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), where she most recently served as deputy chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales strategy and operations.

Carousell’s new vice president of operations, Tan Su Lin / Photo credit: Carousell

Tan will be calling on her experience selling advertising opportunities across multiple channels, as well as her considerable expertise in management and working across SPH’s different business units, to scale up Carousell’s regional operations.

Also joining the Carousell crew is Colin Bryar, who will act as an advisor to the company’s executive team. Bryar worked at Amazon in Seattle from 1998 to 2010, including stints as technical advisor to founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and chief operating officer of the company’s IMDB.com brand.

More recently, he served as chief operating officer at Singapore-based online grocer RedMart between 2015 and 2017, overseeing the startup’s acquisition by Alibaba subsidiary Lazada in 2016.

Bryar will be advising Quek and the rest of Carousell’s senior management on “identifying opportunities for faster growth and providing a world-class customer experience for users across the region,” the company said in a statement.

The big-ticket hires come a matter of months after Carousell secured US$85 million in a series C funding co-led by existing shareholder Rakuten Ventures and new backer EDBI – the investment arm of the Singaporean government’s Economic Development Board.

Banking giant DBS also came on board as a first-time investor, joining previous backers Sequoia Capital, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 Startups.

While it remains far from profitability, Carousell – as analysts have previously suggested – is exploring monetization opportunities and developing its own integrated payments platform.

In a social media post on New Year’s Day, Quek wrote that it has “been an intense 6.5 years [since launching], and 2018 was no exception, but I’ve never been more excited and optimistic about what’s ahead for 2019.”

“[I’m] immensely grateful to the Carousell community across the region for their unwavering support, our team’s heartfelt passion and dedication to the mission, and to our partners, investors, board members, mentors, and friends for their generosity in helping us grow and learn,” he added.