Carousell Group announced today (October 18) that it has acquired Ox Street, one of the fastest-growing marketplaces for authentic sneakers and streetwear in Southeast Asia, for an undisclosed sum.
Following the acquisition, Ox Street will continue to operate as its own brand, retaining its name, platform and team.
This acquisition solidifies Carousell’s strategy to accelerate its recommerce growth in the region. The company remains committed to reimagine the classifieds experience to make second-hand the first choice.
Ox Street makes it a point to inspect and authenticate every pair of sneakers before it reaches its buyers. Their authentication capabilities further propels the mutual goal of creating an experience where transacting secondhand is as convenient and trusted as buying first-hand.
Leveraging Ox Street’s strong domain expertise in the streetwear industry, Carousell intends to deepen its reach and scale to become a market leader for fashion and luxury goods. It will also allow both marketplaces to capture the growth of the Greater Southeast Asian market across sneakers and more emerging categories driven by Gen Z trends.
“We share common values in being user-first and in building communities, as evidenced by the brand love they have created amongst their dedicated community of sneakerheads and fashion enthusiasts, especially amongst the Gen Z. They have also built trust by authenticating every pair of sneakers that gets transacted on the Ox Street marketplace. We see immense opportunity in bringing that capability and their learnings to double down on our recommerce efforts. Most of all, we see this acquisition as joining forces to accelerate our shared vision of making secondhand the first choice,” said Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell.
Gijs Verheijke, founder and CEO of Ox Street, shared that initial conversations with Carousell revolved around providing authentication as a service for sneakers, but they later realised that it would be “much more powerful” for Ox Street to fully join the Carousell Group.
“Our focus markets align nearly 1 to 1, and in these markets, Carousell was actually the first, and remains the largest marketplace for sneakers and streetwear. We started Ox Street to bring a more seamless experience to buying and selling in these categories, and it’s very exciting that we can now continue building our vision for this space on a much larger scale.”
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Featured Image Credit: Carousell
