The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2012–2026
Carousell's secondhand bet turns profitable: $141M FY25 revenue, first EBITDA
Singapore's Carousell pivoted from C2C classifieds to transaction-led recommerce; FY25 revenue hit $141M and it reached EBITDA profitability in July 2026.
Carousell Group
What the business is
Carousell Group is a multi-category classifieds and recommerce platform in Greater Southeast Asia, operating Carousell, Cho Tot, Laku6, LuxLexicon, Mudah.my, OneShift, REFASH and Revo Financial across seven markets.
Starting capital：SGD 1M (about US$800K) seed round led by Rakuten in November 2013, followed by a US$6M Series A led by Sequoia Capital in 2014.
How it started
Three NUS students — Quek Siu Rui, Marcus Tan and Lucas Ngoo — built the first prototype at Startup Weekend Singapore in March 2012 and launched in August 2012. The C2C app grew fast on photo-first listings, holding the No. 1 shopping-app position in Singapore's iOS App Store from mid-2014 and passing 8 million listings by November 2014.
What happened
Carousell expanded across seven markets, raised from investors including Rakuten, Sequoia, Telenor, Naver, 500 Global and Peak XV, and was reported as a US$1B company in September 2021. Then it spent several years transforming from classifieds into a transaction-led recommerce business: integrated payments and shipping, 'Carousell Certified' professional inspection of luxury goods and phones, a 'Sell to Carousell' program, and 29 physical stores in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. Recommerce revenue grew 40% YoY in FY25 and became 45% of total revenue and the largest driver of growth.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding. In July 2026 Carousell announced positive EBITDA for FY25 with revenue up 18% to $141M, and set FY26 priorities of scaling recommerce and investing in AI — sellers now create listings in as little as three seconds with 'List with AI', and the company says more than 99% of transactions complete without a scam incident.
Background
Carousell Group was founded in Singapore in August 2012 by three NUS students — Quek Siu Rui, Marcus Tan and Lucas Ngoo — who built the first prototype at Startup Weekend Singapore in March 2012. The bet was that a photo-first mobile app could make selling unwanted items as easy as snapping a picture, and that over time 'secondhand can be the first choice' across Southeast Asia.
The app took off as a C2C classifieds board: by June 2014 it was the No. 1 shopping app in Singapore's iOS App Store and by November 2014 users had created more than 8 million listings. The company raised from Rakuten, Sequoia, Telenor, Naver, 500 Global and Peak XV, expanded to seven markets under brands including Carousell, Cho Tot, Mudah.my and Laku6, and was described as a US$1B company in 2021.
The strategic pivot came after that: Carousell spent several years moving from passive listings to owning the transaction — integrated payments and shipping, Carousell Certified inspection of luxury goods and phones, a Sell-to-Carousell program, and 29 physical stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. In FY25 recommerce revenue grew 40% year-on-year and accounted for 45% of total revenue, making it the largest driver of growth.
The transformation produced the first profitability milestone: in July 2026 Carousell announced positive EBITDA for FY25 with revenue up 18% year-on-year to $141M, nearly tripling since FY21. Its FY26 plan is to scale recommerce and push AI — listing creation in as little as three seconds and more than 99% of transactions reported as scam-free.
What has to be true
- Photo-first, chat-native listings removed friction from C2C selling, letting a three-person startup win Singapore's shopping-app charts by 2014.
- The founders wagered that consumers would buy more secondhand goods if the marketplace guaranteed the transaction, not just the listing.
- Recommerce — payments, inspection, logistics and physical stores — turned a monetization problem (classifieds ads) into a growing 45%-of-revenue business.
- AI became the trust multiplier: 3-second listing creation and a reported 99%+ scam-free transaction rate supported the profitability milestone.
- The 2021 unicorn valuation and FY25 EBITDA both came from the same asset: a decade of buyer-seller behavior data across billions of marketplace interactions.
What can be applied
A marketplace's ceiling is trust: when growth stalls on classifieds, owning the transaction — payments, inspection, logistics, stores — turns a listings business into a profitable commerce engine.
Aftermath
As of its 7 July 2026 announcement, Carousell Group is EBITDA-positive for the first time: FY25 revenue of $141M grew 18% year-on-year, recommerce revenue grew 40% and made up 45% of total revenue, and 29 physical stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia supported more than 20% GMV uplift in luxury, phones and fashion. The group said it entered FY26 with a strong cash position and plans to scale recommerce across regional markets while investing in AI for trust and listing tools; it serves tens of millions of users across seven markets.
Sources
- Singapore's recommerce platform Carousell reaches EBITDA profitability as revenue hits $141M
- Mobile Marketplace Carousell Raises $6M Series A Led By Sequoia Capital
- Marketplace App Carousell Raises $800K Seed Round Led By Rakuten
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