Brief: Southeast Asia’s most valuable tech company files for $1b US IPO

Nick Nash (L), Sea’s group president, speaking at Tech in Asia Singapore 2015. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

The news:

• Singapore tech firm Sea has filed for a potential IPO with the US Securities & Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg.
• Sea – known as Garena until changing its name earlier this month – is reportedly considering an IPO in early 2018, with the listing predicted to raise as much as US$1 billion. The Financial Times suggests Sea could go public as early as this year. The company was valued at around US$3.75 billion back in April 2016, making it Southeast Asia’s most valuable tech startup.

Why it matters:

• Should the float go ahead and reach US$1 billion in value, it would make Sea the largest high-tech IPO yet to emerge from Southeast Asia.
• China’s Tencent is one of Sea’s high-profile backers, making Sea a potential key player in Tencent’s proxy war with Alibaba.
• Founded in 2009, Sea originally focused on online gaming, before moving into areas such as digital content, ecommerce and payments. While its revenues surpassed US$300 million for the first time last year, Sea faces increased competition regionally from the likes of ride-hailing firms Go-Jek and Grab, which have similarly made moves into ecommerce.

Source: Bloomberg