Carousell, Heliconia commit US$25m for majority stake in Indonesian used electronics platform Laku6
Sharanya Pillai
SINGAPORE classifieds platform Carousell and Temasek unit Heliconia are jointly committing US$25 million to gain a majority stake in Laku6, an Indonesian online platform for second-hand electronics.
The deal, announced in a Tuesday (Jul 26) press statement, comes after Heliconia invested US$10 million in Carousell in October last year.
Founded in 2016, Laku6 is a fully-owned unit of a Singapore-based company, Rebonics. Its used electronics marketplace comes with a function to remotely inspect the condition of second-hand mobile phones. The startup said that it has processed over 500,000 mobile phone transactions and has served over 16,000 merchants in Indonesia.
Regulatory filings of Rebonics as of Tuesday show that it posted a S$7.8 million net loss for FY2020 ended December, on the back of S$5.7 million in revenue. Its investors included Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures, Germany’s Rocket Internet and Japan-based Itochu Corporation.
In an email newsletter on Thursday, research outfit Data Vantage said that a vehicle owned by Carousell and Heliconia, Lyra SPV Pte Ltd, owns 85.6 per cent of Laku6’s parent, while Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia owns the remainder. Carousell owns 51 per cent of Lyra SPV, Data Vantage added.
In Tuesday’s press statement, Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell, said: “This partnership provides for a potent combination to secure Carousell’s leadership in the greater South-east Asia electronics recommerce market.”
Carousell sees about 2 million new listings in its electronics category every quarter. It hopes to ramp up this segment by integrating Laku6’s pricing algorithms and instant cash service.
Recently valued at US$1.1 billion, Carousell has been building up scale with a string of small acquisitions. In May, it acquired second-hand fashion platform Refash, and prior to that, bought sneaker marketplace Ox Street. The company was also said to be in talks to buy property platform 99.co.
This comes as Carousell is said to have ended talks on a merger with L Catterton’s blank-cheque company that could have valued the combined entity at US$1.5 billion.
