Carousell was founded in Singapore on May 14, 2012, by co-founders Quek Siu Rui, Lucas Ngoo, and Marcus Tan The first item sold on Carousell was an Amazon Kindlee-reader for S$75. Carousell was subsequently registered as Carousell Pte. Ltd. on Jan 2, 2013.

In November 2013, Rakuten, with follow-on investments by Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups, and a few other investors invested $1 million in Carousell. Subsequently, in November 2014, Carousell announced that it received US$6 million in investment from Sequoia India. In August 2016, Carousell raised $35 million in their Series B funding round.

As of 2016, over 23 million items had been sold on Carousell and users had created over 57 million listings of new and used items for sale.

Carousell has expanded regionally to seven countries, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan. However, Carousell’s expansion into Taiwanfaces competition against headstart companies like Yahoo! and Ruten, which are already settled in the e-commerce market.