Carousell raised over $45m in new funding last year

Carousell appears to have raised over US$45 million in new funding last year, according to financial documents reviewed by Tech in Asia, while the startup confirmed it has new backers. This could be a sign of investor confidence in Carousell’s ability to become profitable.

Filings submitted to Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) by the startup indicate that it had paid-up share capital totaling about US$87.1 million as of September 20 last year.

Tech in Asia’s database records Carousell as having raised a total of US$41.8 million as of August 2016, when its series B round was announced.

The difference between these two figures – US$45.3 million – appears to be the amount Carousell has brought in since then.

That falls short of the US$80 million it is reported to have raised at series C, but it’s possible that the remainder hasn’t been banked yet. The investment may be divided into two or more tranches.

We do have new investors.

EDBI, the Singapore Economic Development Board’s corporate investment arm, is named as a shareholder, though it had not been been listed as a Carousell investor before. Previously reported investors Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 Startups are also listed as owning stakes.

“Fundraising is an ongoing process,” a Carousell spokesperson told Tech in Asia when asked about series C fundraising. “We do have new investors, but we’ll announce further details when the time is right.”

EDBI responded to Tech in Asia‘s request for comment, but was unable to provide additional details at this time.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

With more than 100 million listings and users in 19 cities across seven countries, Carousell’s achievements since it launched its C2C platform in May 2012 cannot be understated. But monetizing what it has built – arguably the much harder task –  has only just begun.

Starting out as a community-driven marketplace to connect individual buyers and sellers, Carousell was run on a free-to-use basis, generating next to no income. But its latest available financial report indicates that Carousell might still be in the nascent stages of monetization. Its revenue in 2016 was negligible and decreased by over a third from 2015, although it’s not known if it improved last year.

Room for improvement

What to look for in the 2017 statement