About Quek Rui
Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell, has emphasized the company's focus on recommerce and sustainable growth. In late 2024, he described Carousell's mission as making "secondhand the first choice" and noted that the company has been operating for 12 years while still being "less than 1% done." He stated that the company is investing in trust and convenience through initiatives such as a "Certified" authentication program for luxury goods and the Refash clothing resale service, which allows users to drop off unwanted clothes at physical stores. Quek said Carousell is "well capitalized" and on track to profitability, with revenue growing over 60% in the prior year and an expectation to "healthily reduce" losses.
Quek has also discussed the long-term challenges and opportunities of operating in Southeast Asia, describing the region as "highly fragmented" in language, culture, and logistics. He cited the global trend toward sustainability and the circular economy as a "major tailwind" for recommerce. Reflecting on the company's journey, Quek said that "meaningful things do take time" and that the "best years are ahead of us." He has credited the company's early focus on a mobile-first "snap-sell" experience and a disciplined approach to product-market fit as foundational to its growth.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Quek Rui's recent appearances.
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Transcript (5 segments)
Q
Quek Rui0:00
I think with startups we're always constrained by resources and I think the best advice that we've gotten is to stay really focused on a few critical priorities. So for us as a group, we're very focused on our recommerce strategy, very focused on bringing trust and convenience, and we're doing it for a few focus categories that we are very strong in and that we want to deliver in our key markets. So that's really the likes of your used cars, like you mentioned, used mobile phones, used luxury bags have grown tremendously over the past couple of years, as well as fashion. So with Refash, it's actually a really exciting team that we brought on. One problem that our users face, especially our women community, is that they've got too many clothes in their wardrobe, no time to sell them. They can now put their clothes in a cleanout bag, drop it off at one of our 16 stores in Singapore, we've got three stores now in Malaysia, and we'll actually pick it out, give you cash for what's good, and we'll actually resell them as a well-conditioned fashion item in one of our stores and also on the Carousell platform.
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Interviewer1:03
So I have to talk about the financials too. Before the pandemic started, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Carousell actually stated that you were on a path to profitability by 2024. Now judging from the 2022 financials, we've seen net losses actually widen because these rising costs have really hit a lot of startups. Do you think you're still on track for that path to profitability, or do you think you need to adjust the goalposts?
Q
Quek Rui1:25
So I think first, we acknowledge that the recommerce option is a really big one. We are actually investing to grow these different initiatives and strategies. But that said, we also have a plan to profitability and we are on track to that plan. And if you saw our growth last year in revenue, it was a very healthy clip of over 60%. This year we continue to expect revenue to grow healthily, and I think in a very promising sign, we are actually going to be healthily reducing our losses this year as well. So actually, we're well on our way to profitability. We feel confident that we can actually continue to generate healthy growth towards this very meaningful direction of recommerce growth and also healthily reducing our losses towards that path to profitability. Because our goal is always to build both a meaningful company that does good, that does a great business, but also to be an enduring one that can last for many, many years.
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Interviewer2:19
Sounds exciting, sir. And it sounds like you're really committed and doubling down on the recommerce strategy, to Refash. As far as capital raising is concerned, does all of this imply that you don't need to pursue a listing at this point in time?
Q
Quek Rui2:34
Actually, we are so privileged to get the support of our investors, and because of their support, we are actually very well capitalized to execute on these strategies. So we feel very confident with our capital position. And to your point, we're so laser-focused on execution now, realizing that we are in a very privileged position to have that capital that we've raised. We've got an amazing strategy, a very committed and focused team on this strategy, and that's what we're really doing: staying laser-focused on making secondhand first.
