Carousell’s 2020 numbers, explained

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Hello reader,

A few years ago, my parents decided that they wanted to buy a new sofa set. They did, and when the new sofas arrived, we had to figure out what to do with the old ones. They were still in pretty good condition despite us having sat on them for nearly 10 years, and it seemed like such a waste to put them in the dumpster.

So we turned to Carousell, listed the sofa set for something like a hundred bucks, and had a buyer lined up and ready to go within hours.

The Singapore-based classifieds firm is the go-to place for many people to buy and sell pre-loved items, but it’s also become so much more. Carousell has grown tremendously since it was launched back in 2012, and the road ahead for it seems like an exciting one.

Today we look at:

• Carousell’s 2020 financials
• What fresh funding will do for this cross-border ecommerce startup
• Other newsy highlights such as the launch of Glance’s live feature in Indonesia and VNPay’s partnership with Visa in Vietnam

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Diving into Carousell’s finances

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Carousell is reportedly in talks to go public via a special purpose acquisition company this year, with the joint entity valued at US$1.5 billion. While the region’s tech and startup scene waits to see if this will come to pass, let’s take a look at Carousell’s numbers for its financial year ending December 31, 2020.

• Gains and losses: In 2020, the online classifieds giant reported a revenue of US$40.6 million, a more than 3x increase from 2019. Its acquisition of 701Search – the marketplace behind Mudah in Malaysia, Cho Tot in Vietnam, and OneKyat in Myanmar – likely drove a bulk of that growth. At the same time, Carousell’s losses before taxes deepened from US$42.2 million to US$63.9 million as its employee headcount ballooned.

• The price of acquisition: Carousell is increasingly feeling the weight of running a sprawling business. Between 2019 and 2020, the firm’s employee benefits expenses roughly doubled to US$62.6 million. It also saw an increase in expenses on salaries, commissions, and bonuses, growing over 40% to US$32.4 million in the same period.

• Time will tell: Carousell stands to benefit from a trend toward “recommerce” – or reverse commerce. The revenue potential of the firm’s recent acquisitions, which could open up new revenue streams for the company, have also not yet been reflected in its financial statements.

Read more: Carousell triples revenue to $40.6m in 2020

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