Carousell buys Indonesian recommerce firm Laku6

Update (July 27, 2022, 11 a.m.): This article was updated to clarify that Carousell’s US$25 million investment into Laku6 is part of the acquisition deal.

Classifieds giant Carousell Group has invested US$25 million as part of a deal to acquire Laku6, an Indonesian electronics recommerce platform. The deal was supported by the Singapore-based firm’s investor, Heliconia Capital Management, a unit of Temasek Holdings.

Carousell co-founders (from left) Quek Siu Rui, Marcus Tan, Lucas Ngoo / Photo credit: Carousell

The acquisition aims to serve the rapidly growing market for preowned phones and support sustainability in electronics, Carousell said. This comes as the company continues to expand its secondhand business across Southeast Asia.

Laku6 has inspected and transacted over half a million mobile phones and served over 16,000 mobile phone merchants. According to Carousell, Laku6’s remote diagnostic technology can inspect the condition of secondhand mobile phones in under two minutes.

Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell, described electronics recommerce as “a win-win-win,” citing how it is “great for users with affordable like-new devices [and] beneficial to the environment as people sell and buy secondhand instead of new.” It is also “an exciting business opportunity with over 2.5x electronics recommerce growth potential ahead,” he added.

The deal comes amid a boom in Southeast Asia’s electronics recommerce industry, which is expected to grow over 2.5x to US$18.6 billion by 2026, based on research by RedSeer Strategy Consultants.

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Carousell said it sees about two million new listings in its electronics category every quarter, making it one of the largest platforms for transactions involving used electronics – particularly mobile phones – in the region.

The acquisition follows an initial investment that Heliconia made into Carousell in October 2021. It also comes after Carousell bought Ox Street, an end-to-end marketplace dedicated to sneakers and streetwear, and Singapore-based fashion retailer Refash.