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CAROUSELL has joined the unicorn club. The Singapore-based online classifieds startups on Wednesday raised US$100 million in fresh funds that valued it at US$1.1 billion, making it the city-state's latest tech startup to be worth more than a billion dollars. The fund-raise was led by South Korean private equity firm STIC, and bumped up Carousell's valuation slightly from the US$900 million recorded in its previous round last year. The city-state has seen more unicorns popping up on its shores this year, as it positions itself to capture South-east Asia's rising tech wave. Other newly-minted members in Singapore's growing unicorn club include IP analytics startup PatSnap, fintech company Nium and car marketplace Carro. Like Carousell, some of these companies have benefited from the surge of online activity and transactions on their platform amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Carousell, led by co-founder and chief executive Quek Siu Rui, has raised US$100 million in a funding round led by South Korean private equity firm STIC. It is now the city-state's latest unicorn. CAROUSELL has joined the unicorn club. The Singapore-based online classifieds startups on Wednesday raised US$100 million in fresh funds that valued it at US$1.1 billion, making it the city-state's latest tech startup to be worth more than a billion dollars. The fund-raise was led by South Korean private equity firm STIC, and bumped up Carousell's valuation slightly from the US$900 million recorded in its previous round last year. The city-state has seen more unicorns popping up on its shores this year, as it positions itself to capture South-east Asia's rising tech wave. Other newly-minted members in Singapore's growing unicorn club include IP analytics startup PatSnap, fintech company Nium and car marketplace Carro. Like Carousell, some of these companies have benefited from the surge of online activity and transactions on their platform amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Carousell is also said to be considering a public listing in the United States through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Bloomberg reported in June. US SPAC or not, an exit could materialise for Carousell soon. Regulatory filings indicate that the Singapore-based company aims to provide its investors with an exit by 2024, at a valuation of at least US$1.13 billion. The company, which has a platform that allows users to buy and sell items ranging from clothes to houses, plans to spend the money on "deepening its investments" across more categories of pre-owned goods and markets, said co-founder and chief-executive Quek Siu Rui. It is also exploring acquisitions to scale up the business. Carousell has been busy. In April, it ventured into the highly competitive space of used-car sales, where it said it has plans to invest aggressively in. The company cited this vertical, as its largest one, contributing a third of revenue. Other more established used-car marketplaces include unicorns Carro and Carsome. Founded in 2012, Carousell has a presence in eight markets across South-east Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Its growing investor list includes names such as Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Naver and Sequoia Capital India. The startup said it currently has "tens of millions" of monthly active users. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/garage/carousell-raises-us100m-enters-unicorn-club-at-us11b-valuation

SINGAPORE: E-commerce platform Carousell announced it is cutting 10 per cent of the group's total headcount, or about 110 roles, as part of efforts to cut costs. The company's chief executive Quek Siu Rui said on Thursday (Dec 1) that only employees from some business units were affected. Those affected were informed by email and were also invited to a meeting with a team leader and a human resources business partner. Mr Quek said this was a "very difficult decision". "I am deeply sorry for this outcome, and I take responsibility for the decisions that have led us here." The affected regular employees will receive at least three months' salary, allowed to encash all remaining paid time-off, and have their medical benefits and insurance coverage extended until June 30, 2023, among other measures. Tools for job search, counselling services for emotional and mental support, as well as career counselling and employment assistance will be provided to those affected. Mr Quek said Carousell was eager to reignite growth in its core classified business after the COVID-19 pandemic, and was also optimistic about the recovery to come. The company had doubled down on a number of new initiatives, which meant creating more teams to work on them and increasing its headcount. "Looking back, I’d made the following critical mistakes," said Mr Quek. He said he was firstly too optimistic about the pace of Carousell's impact versus its increase in its investments. The company was quick to grow its expenses and hire, but the returns took longer than expected. Mr Quek added he also underestimated the impact of growing the company's team size too quickly - larger teams led to a lack of clarity in decision-making and the additional coordination required to get things done. "It does not help that the worsening macroeconomic environment presents more headwinds to the growth expected." Full article here: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/carousell-employees-lay-cut-costs-compensation-3117911 The press release looks almost like a cut and paste from Mark Zuckerberg three weeks ago.

https://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/teen-17-who-offered-lucrative-car-rental-prices-on-carousell-and-went-mia-with A 17-year-old teenager who allegedly offered lucrative car rental prices online and became uncontactable after receiving payment has been arrested. The police received a report on April 12 from a victim who informed that he had been purportedly cheated by an online seller after responding to a car rental advertisement on Carousell. "The seller allegedly offered the victim a lucrative price for the rental of a car," police added. "After deposits were transferred by the victim through PayNow to the bank account provided by the seller, the seller purportedly did not deliver on the car rental services and became uncontactable." Following investigations, officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division established the identity of the male teenager and arrested him on May 19. Preliminary investigations revealed that the male teenager is believed to be involved in several other similar cases of scams. Investigations are ongoing.

After using Carousell for 1 month (As a seller), this is what I've learn about Singapore's no.1 buying and selling community, do you agree? please share your views too! 1) The demography of the buyer of Carousell are, disappointingly, mostly cash strapped people or students with little pocket money. Of course there are geniune buyers willing to pay the price, but they are the minority in the group. 2) It is wise to list your price higher that what you are willing to let go. Most often than not, person will negoiate with you are unbelievable low prices. You will type word "no lowballers" or "MIA" more often in than ever. 3) Buyers almost never read the description, so don't bother overloading them with info. 4) Items with alot of "likes" usually stays listed for a long time. Items with not much "likes" usually gets sold within days. 5) Some buyers asked questions that makes you wonder if they are actually serious or just trolling. 6) If you sell ladies cloth articles, there will be 1 or 2 jokers asking if it can be sold worned. 7) You get members following you but when you read their profile and items they sell, it's totally not relevant to what you are selling, especially ladies stuff. 8) Some buyers demand you to meet them at their convenience instead of your schedule. These buyers tend to think the seller is running a business and customer service is an entitlement. I usually ask them to buy elsewhere. 9) Buyers who fail to negotiate will usually use the ultimatum to bargain, like "eBay is cheaper, Amazon got sell cheaper, can buy x10 pcs from Taobao, Shops sell cheaper". I wish them all the best. 10) Carousell is for you to cut your losses, not to make a profit. If you are planning to sell your limited edition superman comicbook which had inflated to 100x the original price based on Market rate, you will have better luck with eBay or comic forums.

Feeling the heat of competition from online sites, used car traders are banding together to set up their own portal. A group of 20 traders led by Mr Eddie Loo, managing director of CarTimes Automobile, is raising $5 million with the aim of rolling out the site by early next year. "The online presence is eating into dealers' business," Mr. Loo told The Straits Times. "We need to protect our business before it's all taken away from us." He said competition has been coming fast and furious, in the form of such entities as sgCarMart, Carousell, Carros and ------. "And we find it's meaningless for us to support these online portals when they are competing with us," he added. Carousell, for instance, has muscled into the car domain, while sgCarMart has just started a car financial services arm. "Our aim is to become the largest online portal... to create a new marketplace for dealers," Mr. Loo said, adding that the yet-to-be-named site will be run by 'a professional team'. "It won't be run by dealers, so that it won't be one-sided," he added. "Every dealer will have a stake, so that their interest is protected." He said the business-to-consumer site will cater to motorists who want to buy or sell vehicles, and it could eventually allow deals to be done fully online. "It's still preliminary," he added. "The $5 million is just the first phase." Mr. Loo said the investment will go into hiring a team as well as marketing efforts. "There's a lot of marketing to be done," he noted. The used car trade is in the doldrums on account of depressed Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices, which have rendered vehicle stocks bought with higher premiums commercially unviable. The slowdown, which started in July when COEs for cars up to 1,600cc fell to eight-year lows, has claimed at least one company. Shen Tat Enterprises has shut down after nearly 30 years in the business. ST PREMIUM article. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/used-car-dealers-to-set-up-largest-online-portal

Something interesting to look forward to during the National Day weekend. Somewhere to kill some time. Will be held at Marina Bay Sands Hall. https://mothership.sg/2018/07/carouselland-2018/

Hi bros and sis here. I'm looking to sell my car well actually toying with the idea for now. So I would like to ask if you are planning to sell your vehicle, which platform do you go to? I am not rushing to sell it so I am ok with the idea of selling it off myself even if it will take a little more time. I know that currently the ad fees for sgcarmart is now $58 till you sell off your car. I think it used to be $48 for 6 weeks only. $58 seems ok if it means being able to post till it's being sold. But, if it's unsold are you able to get back the ad fees? Haha.. And after sometime will my ads be pushed down by newer ads? Hope some bros can clarify some of my doubts as I think all of you are much more familiar with how the system works. Also.. Carousell has been my preferred platform to sell off my used stuff etc and it is relatively effective! I have seen many car ads on Carousell as well, and there is Carousell Motor. Carousell and Carousell Motor they are not the same platform? Do you need to pay to advertise there, and how does it work? Honestly I think Carousell is a good platform to sell of my unwanted stuff but not so sure about using it to sell my car. Lowballers, have to entertain messages on PM and honestly it looks quite confusing. For eg if i type Mitsubishi Lancer there are rental ads, car parts for mit lancer appearing etc. Are the younger generations using Carousell to sell off their cars now? Whats your preferred choice now?

Read more link: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/facebook-launches-online-marketplace-platform-in-singapore Personally have been waiting for this move for more than a year already. Would be an interesting additional channel for ecommerce. But as a consumer, I'm not sure if I want a business owner to have access to what is publicly available on my profile... double edge sword really.