Carousell—a Singapore-based online marketplace—has appointed a new managing director for advertizing, JJ Eastwood to oversee the company’s advertizing sales operations.
Prior to joining Carousell, Eastwood was the Asia Pacific managing director at Rakuten Marketing where he led the expansion of Rakuten Marketing’s programmatic, affiliate and search businesses across Asia Pacific. He has also spent time at eBay, Microsoft and Rocket Fuel.
Rakuten is one of Japan’s largest internet companies and was founded in Tokyo in 1997. It operates multiple e-commerce, fintech, and content platforms and is a prolific global tech investor, including in companies like Pinterest, Lyft, and Careem. Carousell is also one of its investments.
At Carousell, Eastwood will manage the company’s advertising strategy for clients ranging from the general sectors like lifestyle goods, to high-value verticals such as cars and property.
He will report directly to the newly-hired chief commercial officer Lewis Ng.
The online marketplace raised USD 56 million from Naspers, the parent company of classified ads site OLX in April and USD 85 million in a Series C round co-led by Rakuten Ventures and the investment arm of the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDBI) last May.
Carousell has also been backed by other notable venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and QuestVC.