Singapore's Carousell Takes A Step Closer to Becoming A Unicorn In Deal With Telenor The company is now valued at $850 million

By Aparajita Saxena Nov 22, 2019

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Singapore online marketplace for second hand goods, Carousell has agreed to a merger with a unit of Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor Group, in a deal that values the combined companies at over $850 million.

Telenor's 701Search, which owns and operates three online marketplaces in Asia - Mudah in Malaysia, Cho Tot in Vietnam and OneKyat in Myanmar - will cease to be a unit of Telenor after the merger, Carousell said in a statement, adding Telenor will hold 32 per cent in the combined company.

The cash-and-stock deal propels Carousell towards its vision to become the largest online classifieds business in Asia, and comes just months after Naspers-owned OLX struck a deal to merge its Philippines business with the Singapore company.

The merger also takes Carousell closer to becoming a unicorn - a term used to describe companies that are valued over $1 billion.

Carousell had a valuation of $560 million before the deal, according to a Straits Times report. The company has raised over $180 million in funding over 11 rounds, the latest being in April, according to Crunchbase. Its investors include Rakuten, Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups and DBS.

701Search's Singapore team will be absorbed by Carousell, the company said.

Aparajita Saxena

Former Deputy Associate Editor, Asia Pacific

Aparajita is Former Deputy Associate Editor for Entrepreneur Asia Pacific. She joined Entrepreneur after nearly five years with Reuters, where she chased the Asian and U.S. finance markets.

At Entrepreneur Asia Pacific, she wrote about trends in the Asia Pacific startup ecosystem. She also loves to look for problems startups face in their day-to-day and tries to present ways to deal with those issues via her stories, with inputs from other startups that may have once been in that boat.

Outside of work, she likes spending her time reading books (fiction/non-fiction/back of a shampoo bottle), chasing her two dogs around the house, exploring new wines, solo-travelling, laughing at memes, and losing online multiplayer battle royale games.

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