Carousell buys Indonesian electronics recommerce platform

They aim to extend the life cycle of electronic goods by making selling easier.

Carousell Group has acquired Laku6, an Indonesian artificial intelligence (AI)-first end-to-end electronics recommerce platform, positioning the Group as the market leader in the electronic reccommrce industry of Greater Southeast Asia. 

In a statement, Carousell said Temasek unit Heliconia will support the acquisition and the acceleration of circularity in seconhand electronics.

“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 Co-founder and CEO Quek Siu Rui.

“The electronics recommerce opportunity is one that is win-win-win: great for users with affordable like-new devices, beneficial to the environment as people sell and buy secondhand instead of new, and an exciting business opportunity with over 2.5X electronics recommerce growth potential ahead,” he added.

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Laku6’s proprietary AI-first remote diagnostic technology that can remotely inspect the condition of secondhand mobile phones in under two minutes can help make selling easy as it allows customers to encash their phones as fast as an hour.

The proprietary solution of Laku6 can inspect both software and hardware functionalities such as screen damage and can help build a credible inspection process to boost buyer and seller confidence.

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The companies also target to extend the life cycle of electronic goods with the easy selling of idle devices, which will slow down the growth of toxic e-waste.

Carousell sees around two million new listings in its electronic category every quarter, whilst Laku6 has inspected and transacted over half a million mobile phones and helped over 16,000 mobile phone sellers.