If you are young Asian, you definitely heard about Carosell, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing mobile apps which makes selling and buying on the internet in the easiest way. Founded by Siu Rui Quek, Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan in 2012, this Singapore-based startup has been focusing on mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace across Asia. As of 2016, over 23 million items had been sold on Carousell and users had created over 57 million listings of new and used items for sale.
Their mission is to make selling as easy as taking a photo, and buying as easy as chatting. As for a bigger vision, they wish to give unused products a second chance at life.
Carousell founders Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan. The Singapore-based startup raised $35 million in Series B funding and plans to use the funds to expand into other markets.
Singapore – a Place of Opportunities
Singapore has been occupying a substantial position for being a vibrant cosmopolitan for tech enterprises and investors. According to YMI.Asia findings, Singapore ranks #1 in Startup Mobility and in the Education sector in Asia. Its highly educated workforce is proven favourable in nurturing startup talents. Singaporeans also enjoy a high degree of travel freedom according to the annual Henley Passport Index in which the country’s passport ranks the world’s second most powerful.
Quek Siu Rui explained, “In Singapore, one of the fortunate things we have is that the government and the universities have been very supportive in creating an ecosystem here. They had a co-working space that was set up by the university. So we actually had an office. That helped a lot.”
A Piece of Advice to Young Entrepreneurs
To every aspiring entrepreneurs, PASSION is the most valuable quality to encounter different problems in the progress.
“Startups are going to be very hard. It’s very, very hard. And you’re going to be running into challenges after challenges, and the only reason you keep going is because you are absolutely passionate about the problem you are solving. Because you won’t settle until you’ve solved that problem well. So I think for startups and aspiring entrepreneurs, you have to really find what you love before you commit to it. ”
A Team with Mobility to conquer the world
Carosell team is young but has also attracted talented management members such as Airbnb’s Jia Jih Chai, Komli Media’s Rakesh Malani, Vinted’s Andrius Baranauskas. With their ambitions of business growth in the globe in the long run, the team emphasised on talent mobility, and had recruited across the world including Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Ukraine, India and Lithuania. So far Carousell operates within Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States, and will further expand its sphere of influence 12 cities in the next year. Lucas Ngoo was even named as one of the 30 “Under 30” by Forbes 2016. We are expected to see how they make a big impact on mobile/online consumption pattern after it developing a business model in the next step.
For a detail report on Singapore, visit https://www.dot.asia/ymi-2018-singapore/
For the full report on Youth Mobility Index, visit http://ymi.asia
Source of Information: Tech in Asia & Carosell
