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Carousell’s founding team. Photo credit: Carousell.
When Carousell’s founders thought about building the app, they just wanted an easy way for people to buy and sell their stuff on the internet. Today Carousell has come a long way.
It has just solidified its position as a leading peer-to-peer mobile marketplace – along with Shopee – in Southeast Asia by acquiring Duriana, a rival based in Malaysia. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
This is Carousell’s third acquisition in less than six months, the firm says in a statement today. The startup bought Singaporean used car marketplace and dealership tool Caarly in October and personal safety app Watch Over Me in September, but the latter was more of an acqui-hire.
Duriana is no ordinary deal, states Carousell. It bolsters the latter’s listings in Malaysia, which number 5 million and gives it a “significant boost” in the Philippines, though exactly how much it’ll help is unclear. A quick check on App Annie shows Duriana ranks only 173 in the shopping category on Google Play in the Philippines, while Carousell ranks number 5 and Shopee number 2. Most smartphones sold in the archipelago run on Android.
Duriana enjoyed an 80 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in Manila transactions last quarter, Carousell adds, but it didn’t reveal the base figure.
With the purchase, Carousell effectively gains an additional 600,000 users on its platform (it did not say if these are active or registered users).
“This acquisition accelerates our international growth,” notes co-founder and CEO Quek Siu Rui.
Since its launch in 2012, Carousell has expanded to 19 major cities in 7 countries. It counts over 57 million listings and over 23 million items sold as of 2016. It’s moved to the series B stage, with a US$35 million investment, led by Rakuten Ventures last year. Sequoia, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 Startups participated in that round.
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