Rakuten, EDBI lead $85m round for classifieds player Carousell
Rakuten Ventures and EDBI have led an $85 million Series C funding round for Singapore’s Carousell, an online flea market shopping app operator.
Existing investors 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and Sequoia Capital India also participated. DBS Group joined the round as a new investor and is expected to support the development of new financial products and payment services.
According to a statement, the fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development and hire new staff focused on integrating artificial intelligence into the company’s classifieds interface. This effort will respond to customer feedback accumulated during a six-year period and expand on recently incorporated predictive tools, including a personalized browsing and chatting function.
Founded in 2012, Carousell offers a mobile-accessible second-hard shopping service across Southeast Asia that aims to provide a convenient alternative to existing online forums and classified listing sites. The company claims its marketplace has quadrupled in volume since in the past two years with more than 144 million listings and 50 million items sold.
Carousell received a $35 million Series B in 2016 led by Rakuten Ventures that contemplated an expansion beyond Southeast Asia. This followed a $6 million Series A in 2014 led by Sequoia. Other previous backers include Quest Ventures, and Darius Cheung, CEO of property listings platform 99.co and founder of mobile security company TenCube.
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