99 Group Raises Fresh Funds to Go After PropertyGuru in Southeast Asia as Carousell Takeover Talks Collapse

July 28, 2022

The Southeast Asian portal operator 99 Group has reportedly pulled out of takeover talks with generalist marketplace operator Carousell after Carousell's mooted SPAC deal collapsed.

Citing people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg this morning claimed that Carousell's rumoured $150+ million bid to acquire 99 Group was kiboshed after Carousell's plans to go public via a SPAC merger came to nothing. The Singaporean marketplace company had been in talks with the special purpose acquisition company, L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp which would have seen Carousell make its public debut on the NASDAQ.

With the takeover deal fallen through, 99 Group this morning announced a Series C round of $37 million led by the private equity fund Gaw Partners. The portal operator expects to raise an additional $15 million in the coming months to go on the offensive and expand its operations to new markets in the region and increase R&D activities.

While 99 Group operates the leading real estate marketplaces in Indonesia (99.co and rumah123.com) as well as portals in its native Singapore (99.co, iProperty.com.sg and SRX) Carousell operates leading generalist marketplaces in Singapore (Carousell), Vietnam (Cho Tot), Malaysia (Mudah.my) and Myanmar (OneKyat). The merger would have seen the two come together to take on regional rival PropertyGuru.

Special purpose acquisition company deals saw a boom in through 2020 and early 2021 with proptechs such as Porch.com, Opendoor and Offerpad all going public via the method that bypasses some of the hassle and expense involved in an IPO. Recently, market conditions and increased regulation have contributed to a decline in SPAC deals and executives at Carousell would appear to have backed away from a deal rather than take the risk.

July 28, 2022
Since March 2020 Edmund's job has been to read about, write about, collect data on, analyse and generally know about real estate marketplaces and the companies that run them. Before that he worked at the aggregator Mitula Group (which became Lifull Connect) for five years.

Subscribe to our mailing list to get the famous, free Friday newsletter!

News and analysis to help build better online marketplace businesses, in your inbox, every Friday

Related News

costar domain
Supreme Court Approves Shareholder Vote for CoStar Group's Domain Acquisition Bid

New South Wales' Supreme Court has approved a shareholder vote for Domain to decide on CoStar's proposed acquisition of the...

Read More
Product Update June27 1
Product Roundup: Redfin, LeBonCoin, CaixaBank, Coralytics, Yandex, Zoopla

This week's roundup is very Europe-heavy, but we'll start in the United States with Redfin...   United States: Redfin integrates Thumbtack...

Read More
olx app op 1 2
OLX Signals Shift of Strategy Towards B2C at Capital Markets Day

OLX Group is pushing forward with a significant pivot from its traditional C2C classifieds model to a more scalable, B2C-led...

Read More
Shutterstock 1932382865 3
Adevinta Values Spanish Assets at €2 Billion Ahead of Summer Bidding War

Adevinta has reportedly slapped a €2 billion price tag on its suite of Spanish assets, with several parties expected to...

Read More

Editor's Pick