Carousell operates a mobile-first listings service for second-hand goods and services in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It had also raised before USD 41 million, including a USD 35 million Series B in August 2016, from investors such as Rakuten, Sequoia Capital, Golden Gate Ventures and 500 Startups.
Southeast Asia’s ecommerce space, with an estimated 3.8 million people coming online for the first time each month — mostly via mobile devices — houses over 600 million consumers, and could become important alongside China and India.
Carousell initially started out in consumer-to-consumer sales but it has repositioned itself as a listings site. Apparently, Carousell’s annual GMV — gross merchandise volume, which indicates the total value of goods sold across a platform — is at USD 5 billion.
Carousell only monetizes selected verticals such as automotive, jobs, property and services — areas that are typically used by commercial/professional entities. These goods are typically higher in terms of basket size and margin, and paying customers — i.e. the providers of the goods and services that are bought — are likely to be repeaters.
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