Carousell needs to scale up quickly in property, auto verticals as it mulls exit strategy

Singapore

ONLINE classifieds platform Carousell is now betting on expanding its presence in high-ticket categories such as property, automobile and luxury goods to supercharge its next phase of growth, chief financial officer Edwin Chan told The Business Times. But encroaching on the turf of niche majors like PropertyGuru and Carro is no mean feat, and Carousell will need to do more than buy companies in order to amass significant market share.

Mergers and acquisitions have been key drivers for Carousell's growth strategy in the past years, where several platforms such as Malaysia used-car marketplace Caarly and 701Search were brought under its wing. These served as gateways into new, high-value business verticals and brought some economies of scale for the startup.