Singapore firm acquires OLX

Singapore-based online shopping site Carousell is acquiring OLX Philippines as part of its bid to win leadership in Southeast Asia’s competitive consumer buy and sell marketplace.

The move to consolidate comes after Carousell won an investment from Napsers, which is paying $56 million to acquire a 10-percent stake in Carousell via Napsers’ classified business arm, OLX Group.

The deal values Carousell, which was launched in 2012 and serves markets across Southeast Asia, at about $550 million.

“Naspers’ investment will enable us to accelerate the cementing of our leadership in Southeast Asia and our pace of innovation,” Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell, said in a statement.

“We will continue deepening our expertise in technology and AI to bring greater value, trust and convenience to our users,” Quek added.

The companies are eyeing big opportunities in this space with the marketplace having quadrupled in volume globally since inception. It now features more than 196 million listings and 71 million items sold to date.

“Carousell will integrate OLX’s operations and subsidiaries in the Philippines, with integration work happening in stages over the course of the year,” the company said.

In the past 24 months, Carousell made further inroads via the integration of artificial intelligence into its platform with the launch of predictive features like smart listings, personalized browsing, among others.

The past year also saw Carousell expand its marketplace offerings in Singapore with high value categories such as cars, property, jobs, services and finance.

“We are excited to increase our presence in Asia via a fast-growing company such as Carousell,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, OLX Group CEO.