Carousell banks $85m funding from DBS and others

Carousell co-founders Marcus Tan (L), Lucas Ngoo (M), and Quek Siu Rui (R) / Photo credit: Carousell

Carousell has finally revealed that it has closed its series C funding round, following months of speculation and reports that the startup refused to confirm.

The C2C marketplace said today it has raised US$85 million in a round co-led by existing shareholder Rakuten Ventures and first-time investor EDBI – the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.

Tech in Asia revealed in January that EDBI had become a Carousell shareholder, with the startup raising at least US$45 million in funding last year.

Singaporean bank DBS also came on board as a new investor, the startup said today. Previous backers 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and Sequoia Capital’s India fund returned for the series C raise.

A Carousell statement said that the company’s marketplace has quadrupled in
volume since its August 2016 series B round. Fifty million items have been sold through the platform, which has hosted over 144 million listings.

In the past year, Carousell has launched a number of new features in an attempt to generate more revenue from its portal, which is largely fee-free for individual users. These have included paid-for premium listings, “Bumps” which allow sellers to boost the profile of their items, and Carousell Pro, an analytics and marketing app aimed at commercial vendors.

It has also expanded beyond C2C listings into higher-value categories including cars, jobs, real estate, and financial services.

Carousell co-founder and CEO Quek Siu Rui told Tech in Asia that part of the funding would be dedicated to tech development and talent acquisition.

He said, “Product leadership is critical and we are investing in the technology and world-class talent required to support our next phase of growth – from mobile-first to AI-first.”

In particular, data science and machine learning will be key areas of focus for Carousell as it looks to “derive practical insights that help our users buy and sell more effectively,” he added.