Carousell makes key hires, acquires Caarly

Carousell has acquired Singapore startup Caarly as part of its goal to lead in the classifieds space. The move takes aim at leadership in the cars classifieds vertical, Carousell said, and follows the September acquihire* of safety app WatchOverMe - Carousell's first acquihire.

Caarly is a mobile-first productivity tool that makes it easier for used car dealerships to manage their inventory. Since its launch in Singapore in 2014, Caarly has become a trusted partner to more than 200 car dealers, which make up a significant proportion of the car dealerships in Singapore. As part of the acquisition, Carousell has welcomed the full Caarly team into the family and taken on all of its relevant automotive products.

“Carousell has grown over the last 4.5 years, and so have our users. Over 50% of them in Singapore are now over 25 years old, and have significantly more purchasing power. We’ve seen how their evolving needs have resulted in more listings and greater demand in higher value verticals like cars. This acquisition allows us to tap on Caarly’s relationships with car dealers to give users the widest selection of cars on a classifieds marketplace, beginning in Singapore and throughout the Asia Pacific region (APAC) soon after,” said Siu Rui Quek, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell.

By leveraging Caarly’s strong domain expertise in the automotive industry, Carousell intends to deepen its reach in this high value vertical, and scale up to become a market leader for cars classifieds globally. Existing Caarly partners can continue to use the Caarly platform to list their inventory and can cross-post to the cars category on the Carousell marketplace with a single tap.

Winnie Khoo, newly appointed General Manager for Carousell Singapore and Malaysia, will be leading the charge to fully integrate the Caarly team into the Carousell platform. She said, “What began as a simple conversation to include used-car dealers inventory onto the Carousell marketplace (has) allowed us to realise the potential to make a bigger impact for our community. With the widest selection of cars, Carousell will become the go-to for anyone looking to purchase their next car. Together with the Caarly team, we are now even better placed to grow the largest mobile classifieds platform in the world.”

With over 19 years of experience in the e-commerce and property industry, Winnie has a track record of growing and launching businesses in new markets. She started her career in marketing for the likes of Alibaba.com and PropertyGuru before becoming the MD of PropertyGuru.

Also joining the Carousell leadership team is CFO Rakesh Malani, formerly the CFO for ad-tech company Komli Media in India. Rakesh will execute an aggressive capital strategy to help Carousell cement its position as a global classifieds leader, by deepening its reach in high value verticals starting with cars. He’ll also play an integral role in developing the company’s growth and monetisation plans.

Malani began his finance career in the US where he received rigorous finance leadership training while he was at AT&T. He has been a co-founder of a tech startup, and worked with several tech companies - one of which went public on NASDAQ and was subsequently acquired for US$1.25 billion.

Malani said, “Carousell provides me with an absolutely blank canvas from a finance perspective. While the company has grown exponentially the last 4.5 years and raised US$35M Series B (Editor's note: funding) earlier in the year, there’s so much potential to build the finance function in the business. It’s a fantastic time to be part of a team that’s set to become the world’s first native mobile classifieds to aggressively execute a vertical strategy via an acquisition. This appeals to the entrepreneur in me, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to work alongside top-notch colleagues and build a robust, global business.”

*An acquisition primarily to hire the talent at the acquired company.