You’ve probably heard the news by now – popular mobile marketplace Carousell, made in sunny Singapore, has just announced that it received a US$6 million in investment from Sequoia India.
According to the press release, the funding will be used to accelerate international expansion to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Carousell is a mobile-first C2C marketplace and a mobile app that aims to make online person-to-person buying and selling accessible and simple for the emerging smartphone generation worldwide. With Carousell, sellers can snap a photo and list an item for sale in 30 seconds or less; buyers can purchase items just by chatting with sellers via an in-built private chat messenger.
From Left to Right: Carousell co-founders – Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo, Marcus Tan
A Year Later From The Initial Investment
Here are some statistics on the app:
- Launched in 2012, Carousell has organically maintained its rank as the No. 1 Lifestyle app on the App Store for 11 months straight, and the No.1 Shopping app since June 2014 in Singapore.
- The Carousell community has created over 8 million listings of new and preloved items for sale in categories ranging from fashion and beauty to furniture and baby products.
- To date, over 2 million items have been sold on Carousell, with an average of 8 transactions happening every minute.
- The average Carousell user spends approximately 21 minutes per day browsing the marketplace app, an engagement level similar to that of the average Instagram user.
Avid followers of Carousell might know that the team announced a S$1 million dollar in investment a year ago. Back then, the team shared some of its key metrics: on average, a Carousell user would open the app about 10 times a day and spend about 25 minutes on it daily. The Carousell community has also created a million listings on the Carousell marketplace, and over 20% of that ends up getting purchased.
Comparing that to the new announcement, the total listings on Carousell has increased from 1 million listings to over 8 million listings now, an impressive metric improvement in just a year.
Sellers can list an item for sale just by snapping a photo and buyers can purchase items by chatting with sellers via an in-built private chat messenger.
With a fast growing listing, the team probably has new challenges: making sure that relevant listings do not get flooded by the non-relevant ones and ensuring that each listing has the same chances of getting purchased, hence maintaining the liquidity of the mobile marketplace.
“We’re on a mission to make online buying and selling accessible to everyone. If you know how to snap a photo or send a text message using a smartphone, you essentially know how to buy and sell on Carousell,” said Quek Siu Rui, one of the three co-founders of Carousell.