Carousell Bought Indonesian Re-commerce Firm Laku6 

Carousell Group, a classifieds behemoth, has committed $25 million in a bid to purchase Laku6, an Indonesian electronics re-commerce site. Heliconia Capital Management, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, sponsored the transaction. Carousell’s US$25 million investment in Laku6 is part of the purchase arrangement.

According to Carousell, the acquisition seeks to service the rapidly developing market for used phones and to assist electronics sustainability. This comes as the corporation continues to develop its secondhand business throughout Southeast Asia.

Carousell Bought Indonesian Re-commerce Firm Laku6

Laku6 has examined and transacted on over 500,000 mobile phones and served over 16,000 mobile phone retailers. Laku6’s remote diagnostic technology, according to Carousell, can evaluate the condition of used mobile phones in under two minutes.

Electronics re-commerce, according to Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell, is “a win-win-win,” since it is “excellent for users with inexpensive like-new equipment [and] helpful to the environment as individuals sell and purchase secondhand instead of new.”

He added, 

“An exciting business opportunity with over 2.5x electronics re-commerce growth potential ahead,” 

According to RedSeer Strategy Consultants, the transaction comes amid a surge in Southeast Asia’s electronics re-commerce market, which is predicted to rise more than 2.5x to US$18.6 billion by 2026.

Carousell claims to receive over two million new listings in its electronics category each quarter, making it one of the region’s major venues for transactions involving secondhand electronics, notably mobile phones.

The transaction follows Heliconia’s initial investment in Carousell in October 2021. It also comes after Carousell purchased Ox Street, an end-to-end marketplace specialized to shoes and streetwear, and Refash, a Singapore-based fashion shop.