Carousell says it’s ‘on track’ to profitability, plans to reduce losses this year
Secondhand goods marketplace Carousell expects to “healthily” reduce its losses this year, putting it on track to profitability, the firm’s CEO told CNBC.
“This year, we continue to expect revenue to grow healthily. And I think in a very promising sign, we actually are going to be healthily reducing our losses this year as well,” said Quek Siu Rui, co-founder and CEO of Carousell said Monday, adding that the firm is “on track” with its plan to profitability.
In 2022, the Singapore-based company posted $82.5 million in revenue, a 67% jump from the year before, according to regulatory filings. However, losses in 2022 widened 57% year-on-year with higher expenses.
The Singapore-based firm was founded in 2012 as an online classified advertisements marketplace where users can list and sell their used goods for money.
“We acknowledge that the recommerce opportunity is a really big one. We are actually investing to grow these different initiatives and strategies,” Quek said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” referring to the sale of previously owned goods, whether used or brand new.
Research shows that the global circular economy — which seeks to reduce waste and promote recycling and reusing — could generate $4.5 trillion in additional economic output by 2030.
Southeast Asia expansion
From automobiles to fashion, Carousell has been aggressively expanding its presence across Southeast Asia.
In 2019, it agreed to merge with Telenor Group’s classifieds firm 701Search, which operates marketplaces Mudah in Malaysia, Chợ Tốt in Vietnam, and OneKyat in Myanmar. In the same year, Carousell acquired OLX Philippines — which claimed to be the largest online classifieds site in The Philippines.
It also bought online automotive platform OneShift in 2018 and authenticated sneakers and streetwear marketplace Ox Street in 2021, and launched the Ox Luxe service which allows users to buy, sell, and consign pre-owned luxury items such as handbags and watches.
Last year, Carousell acquired Singapore-based second-hand fashion retailer Refash and Indonesian electronics recommerce platform Laku6 to bolster its expansion into the fashion and electronics markets.
“We feel confident that we can actually continue to generate healthy growth towards this very meaningful direction of recommerce growth,” Quek told CNBC.
“[With the] support of our investors, we are actually very well capitalized to execute on these strategies. So we feel very confident about our capital position.”
Cost cutting
Carousell last raised $100 million in a September 2021 funding round, taking its valuation to $1.1 billion. Media reports last year said the company dropped SPAC merger talks with U.S.-headquartered private equity firm L Catterton amid market volatility.
A SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, is a shell company that raises capital in an IPO and uses the cash to merge with a private company in order to take it public.
Challenging macroeconomic conditions such as high interest rates and soaring inflation have caused companies to cancel or delay their IPO plans.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images
Okta on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued an upbeat outlook, but shares fell as the company did not provide guidance for fiscal 2027.
Shares of the identity management provider fell more than 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
- Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
- Revenue: $742 million vs. $730 million expected
Compared to previous third-quarter reports, Okta refrained from offering preliminary guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Finance chief Brett Tighe cited seasonality in the fourth quarter, and said providing guidance would require “some conservatism.”
Okta released a capability that allows businesses to build AI agents and automate tasks during the third quarter.
CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that upside from AI agents haven’t been fully baked into results and could exceed Okta’s core total addressable market over the next five years.
“It’s not in the results yet, but we’re investing, and we’re capitalizing on the opportunity like it will be a big part of the future,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
Revenues increased almost 12% from $665 million in the year-ago period. Net income increased 169% to $43 million, or 24 cents per share, from $16 million, or breakeven, a year ago. Subscription revenues grew 11% to $724 million, ahead of a $715 million estimate.
For the current quarter, the cybersecurity company expects revenues between $748 million and $750 million and adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 85 cents per share. Analysts forecast $738 million in revenues and EPS of 84 cents for the fourth quarter.
Returning performance obligations, or the company’s subscription backlog, rose 17% from a year ago to $4.29 billion and surpassed a $4.17 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
This year has been a blockbuster period for cybersecurity companies, with major acquisition deals from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Google and a raft of new initial public offerings from the sector.
Okta shares have gained about 4% this year.
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Marvell Technology Group Ltd. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, on Sept. 6, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Semiconductor company Marvell on Tuesday announced that it will acquire Celestial AI for at least $3.25 billion in cash and stock.
The purchase price could increase to $5.5 billion if Celestial hits revenue milestones, Marvell said.
Marvell shares rose 13% in extended trading Tuesday as the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations and said on the earnings call that it expected data center revenue to rise 25% next year.
The deal is an aggressive move for Marvell to acquire complimentary technology to its semiconductor networking business. The addition of Celestial could enable Marvell to sell more chips and parts to companies that are currently committing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure for AI.
Marvell stock is down 18% so far in 2025 even as semiconductor rivals like Broadcom have seen big valuation increases driven by excitement around artificial intelligence.
Celestial is a startup focused on developing optical interconnect hardware, which it calls a “photonic fabric,” to connect high-performance computers. Celestial was reportedly valued at $2.5 billion in March in a funding round, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan joined the startup’s board in January.
Optical connections are becoming increasingly important because the most advanced AI systems need those parts tie together dozens or hundreds of chips so they can work as one to train and run the biggest large-language models.
Currently, many AI chip connections are done using copper wires, but newer systems are increasingly using optical connections because they can transfer more data faster and enable physically longer cables. Optical connections also cost more.
“This builds on our technology leadership, broadens our addressable market in scale-up connectivity, and accelerates our roadmap to deliver the industry’s most complete connectivity platform for AI and cloud customers,” Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said in a statement.
Marvell said that the first application of Celestial technology would be to connect a system based on “large XPUs,” which are custom AI chips usually made by the companies investing billions in AI infrastructure.
On Tuesday, the company said that it could even integrate Celestial’s optical technology into custom chips, and based on customer traction, the startup’s technology would soon be integrated into custom AI chips and related parts called switches.
Amazon Web Services Vice President Dave Brown said in a statement that Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial will “help further accelerate optical scale-up innovation for next-generation AI deployments.”
The maximum payout for the deal will be triggered if Celestial can record $2 billion in cumulative revenue by the end of fiscal 2029. The deal is expected to close early next year.
In its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Marvell earnings of 76 cents per share on $2.08 billion in sales, versus LSEG expectations of 73 cents on $2.07 billion in sales. Marvell said that it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be $2.2 billion, slightly higher than LSEG’s forecast of $2.18 billion.
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