Lean giants or labor armies? SEA’s revenue per employee revealed

“Three-person unicorn” is fast becoming the new founders’ dream.

The term describes AI-native startups that reach massive revenues and billion-dollar valuations with lean teams. The poster child is US-based Cursor, an AI coding assistant that hit US$100 million in annual recurring revenue with only 60 employees.

But how realistic is this in Southeast Asia? Tech in Asia’s data suggests: not quite yet.

For this list, we compared 2024 earnings data from the companies we’ve covered with headcounts from LinkedIn and PitchBook, and then we ranked them by revenue per employee. It’s not a perfect measure, but it offers a glimpse into how effectively companies in Southeast Asia are driving revenue.

Turns out, one of the region’s most efficient firms by this metric isn’t a pure software company but a hardware one.

Singapore-based gaming chair maker Secretlab leads in revenue per employee in our list, generating US$944,000 per person.

The company reported US$280 million in revenue last year with a current headcount of 300.

Coming in second is Carro, the Singaporean used-car marketplace unicorn with US$781 million in revenue, which translates to about US$686,000 per employee.

That’s because most of its sales are in Singapore, where car prices are “10x or more” than neighboring markets, according to Carro. Some reports say that the city-state is the most expensive place in the world to own a car.

That said, Carro’s large revenue from car sales comes with thin gross margins – just around 10% over the past two years.

Rounding out the top three is Singapore-based unicorn Coda, which earns through voucher codes and in-game digital content. It partners with over 300 publishers, including those behind popular titles such as Mobile Legends, PUBG, and Genshin Impact.

How about the biggest listed names in the region?

GoTo, Bukalapak, Grab, Sea Group, and Blibli all record US$200,000 to US$305,000 in revenue per employee. For founders eyeing an IPO, this could signal a benchmark worth aiming for.