Brief: Garena now calls itself Sea, picks up $550m in new round

Nick Nash, Group President of Garena at Tech in Asia Tokyo Conference 2016

The news:

• Singapore-based tech company Garena is changing its name to Sea.
• This rebranding comes after the company raised US$550 million in a new round of funding.
• The round was led by GDP Venture, led by Martin Hartono, the son of Indonesia’s richest man, and JG Summit Holdings, founded by Philippine billionaire John Gokongwei. Other investors included Hillhouse, Cathay Financial, and Farallon, Bloomberg reports.
• Sea will use the majority of the new funds to expand Shopee in Indonesia.

Why it matters:

• At a US$3.75 billion valuation, Garena has long been Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup. It’s not clear where its valuation sits after the latest round.
• The company started off as an online gaming company, but now also generates revenue from digital content, social, payments, and ecommerce. Its shopping app Shopee is popular across Southeast Asia.
• But recently, tech firms like Grab and Go-Jek have started catching up to Garena’s lead. Both started with on-demand rides and services and have diversified into digital payments and shopping. Go-Jek is said to have raised a US$1.2 billion round led by Tencent, at a valuation of around US$3 billion. Grab’s valuation is also said to be above US$3 billion since its latest round.

Source: Bloomberg