A Unicorn In The Making?

Co-founder and president of Carousell Marcus Tan shares how his snap-and-sell startup has become a household name in Singapore and beyond.

- Pooja Singh

Marcus Tan credits his mother for giving him the courage to take the leap with Carousell. After working for a year as a business development consultant at tech company Oracle, Tan, along with two other self-proclaimed computer geeks, decided to create an e-commerce platform for buying and selling of new and secondhand goods. “She was initially worried when I left my job, and I could understand where she was coming from, as it was an unconventional route. But she gave me full support,” says Tan. When Carousell was launched in 2012, his mother printed promotion flyers and distributed them on the bus, at work — wherever she went.

This lesson of being relentlessly resourceful when building a business has stayed with the three co-founders, Tan, Quek Siu Rui and Lucas Ngoo — all graduates of the National University of Singapore (NUS). From a headcount of less than 10 in 2012 to over 200 full-timers now, Carousell has become a household name in Singapore, and expanded to Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia and Hong Kong, with over 150 million listings and over 50 million items sold in the seven markets. Reportedly worth US $500 million, Carousell pulled in an $85 million Series C fund in May, which was led by existing investor Rakuten Ventures and EDBI, the corporate investment arm of Economic Development Board in Singapore. Other participants included 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia India and DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank.

The Journey