Carousell acquires Indonesian recommerce platform Laku6

Southeast Asia’s recommerce group Carousell has announced that it acquired control of Laku6, the AI-first end-to-end electronics recommerce platform in Indonesia, as part of its vision to make secondhand the first choice for users.

Temasek unit Heliconia Capital will be supporting Carousell Group in its acquisition of Laku6 and in accelerating circularity in secondhand electronics. The deal follows the initial investment Heliconia made into Carousell, less than a year ago in October 2021.

According to the announcement, the partnership between Carousell Group and Laku6 will position Carousell Group as the market leader in the Greater Southeast Asia’s electronic recommerce industry, which is slated to grow over 2.5X to US$18.6 billion by 2026, based on research by RedSeer Strategy Consultants.

Having inspected and transacted over half a million mobile phones and served over 16,000 mobile phone merchants, Laku6’s proprietary AI-first remote diagnostic technology can remotely inspect the condition of secondhand mobile phones in under 2 minutes.

This makes selling easy, as it allows consumers to encash their phones in as quick as 1 hour. This proprietary solution is capable of remotely inspecting both software and hardware functionalities, including visible screen damage, and helps establish a credible inspection process to instill both buyer and seller confidence.

“This partnership provides for a potent combination to secure Carousell’s leadership in the Greater Southeast Asia electronics recommerce market–bringing together Laku6’s AI-first remote diagnostic technology, Carousell’s regional recommerce platform of tens of millions of users, and one of the largest capital investments to-date into the region’s electronics recommerce space,” said Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell.

Every quarter, Carousell sees about 2 million new listings in its electronics category, making it one of the largest platforms to transact used electronics, and particularly mobile phones, in the region.

Laku6’s proprietary solutions, pricing algorithms and instant cash service, when integrated with Carousell’s wide user network, will make buying and selling used electronics more accessible than ever before for millions of users.