Posted by Singapore, 10 April 2019 – Carousell, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing classifieds marketplaces, today announced that it has received an investment from Naspers, through its classifieds business arm, OLX Group. The deal will also see Carousell acquire OLX Philippines, with the mutual goal of serving the Filipino community to buy and sell online with greater ease and flexibility. The total deal value is worth US$56 million and gives OLX Group an approximate 10% stake in Carousell.
The investment from Naspers, one of the largest technology investors in the world, values Carousell at over US$550 million, and is a testament to Carousell’s ability to develop world class online classifieds marketplace solutions in Southeast Asia. To date, Carousell registers the highest engagement rate and time-spent across all online marketplace players. In addition, Carousell’s advancement in product and innovative technology, coupled with OLX Philippines’ local experience in managing online classifieds will deliver a seamless user experience of the platform.
The marketplace has quadrupled in volume globally since inception, featuring more than 196 million listings and 71 million items sold to date. In the past 24 months, Carousell achieved successes in the integration of artificial intelligence into its platform with the launch of predictive features like smart listings, personalised browsing, chatting experiences and the recent, price suggestion function. The past year also saw Carousell expand its marketplace offerings in Singapore with high value categories such as cars, property, jobs, services and finance.
“It’s our mission to inspire every person in the world to start selling and buying. This means creating the best selling and buying experience for our users. With the acquisition, more value will be brought to sellers and buyers together in a vibrant marketplace that creates even more possibilities for the community”, shared Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell.
OLX Philippines, part of OLX Group, has 13 years of expertise in the online classifieds space. The company is currently the largest online classifieds site in the country, with more than 6 million monthly unique users.
“Naspers’ investment will enable us to accelerate the cementing of our leadership in Southeast Asia and our pace of innovation. We will continue deepening our expertise in technology and AI to bring greater value, trust and convenience to our users. We are grateful for the strong support from our new and existing investors, and their conviction in our capabilities, passion for the mission and product vision” said Quek.
“We are excited to increase our presence in Asia via a fast-growing company such as Carousell, which has deep knowledge across the region. We look forward to learning from them and sharing our own experience of operating in high-growth markets across five continents. Together, we believe we can offer the very best classifieds experience to the local market,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, OLX Group CEO.
Carousell will integrate OLX’s operations and subsidiaries in the Philippines, with integration work happening in stages over the course of the year. The integration is expected to be fully completed in the second half of 2019. Raffy Montemayor, General Manager of OLX Philippines, will manage Carousell’s operations in the market and will lead the transition of its customers to the new platform.
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About Carousell
Carousell is a classifieds marketplace that makes selling as easy as taking a photo, buying as simple as chatting. Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in seven markets across Asia. With almost 200 million listings, we are one of the world’s largest and fastest growing marketplaces in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and is backed by Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, DBS and EDBI. The Carousell marketplace has a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including cars, lifestyle, gadgets and fashion accessories. Download the app for iOS or Android, and visit http://www.carousell.com for more information.
About OLX Group and Naspers
OLX Group is a global product and tech company which operates a network of market-leading trading platforms in five continents. With more than 350 million monthly users worldwide, OLX Group makes it fast and easy to buy and sell almost anything online, such as household goods, phones, cars and houses. Through consumer brands including Avito, dubizzle, letgo, OLX, and many dozen others, we estimate that 17 million products are exchanged on our apps and platforms every single month.
OLX Group is a Naspers company, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Around a fifth of the world’s population improve their daily lives by using the products and services from companies that Naspers operates and invests in.
For more information, please visit http://www.olxgroup.com and http://www.naspers.com.
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