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.