Singapore's DBS has joined in a US$85 million funding round in classified ads marketplace Carousell as a prelude to offering financial products and payment services over the platform.
The app-based marketplace currently serves 19 major cities in seven markets in Asia. In the two years following its last round of funding, Carousell has quadrupled in volume globally, featuring more than 144 million listings and 50 million items sold.
The past year has seen the platform expand into high value categories such as cars, property, jobs, services and, most recently, finance through a collaboration with PFM app MoneySmart.
DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta, says the bank will leverage its investment to begin offering financial products and financing options from within the marketplace.
“DBS has been leveraging digital technology and innovation to seamlessly integrate banking into the lives of customers," he says. "We’re stepping up our participation in ecosystems, improving the customer journey and using data to inform our offerings. The investment in Carousell further builds on that.”
In the last two years, DBS has tied up with a multitude of partners to embed its products into online consumer shopping sites. In 2017, the bank launched DBS Car Marketplace, Singapore's largest direct seller-to-buyer car marketplace, and earlier this year, the bank also introduced DBS Electricity Marketplace which allows households to switch to other retailers following the liberalisation of the retail electricity market in Singapore. In addition, the bank runs Property Marketplace, a platform that connects tenants and landlords.