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Formerly known as Garena, one of the most valuable start-ups in Asia has rebranded as Sea as an IPO moves closer into view.
The battle lines have been drawn in Indonesia, after Garena rebranded as Sea, raised $550m and put a big focus on a market destined for immense corporate competition.
With Tencent already a backer, Singapore-based Sea saw several new investors get involved in the latest funding round, adding to the $170m raised by the company a little more than one year ago.
Bloomberg hints at emerging competition in Indonesia as one of the more interesting facets of Sea’s business plan, with Alibaba front and centre of the market.
Last year, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth bought Lazada for $1bn in a bid to better compete with major players in Indonesia, such as MatahariMall and Tokopedia, according to TechCrunch.
Sea has reportedly chosen Goldman Sachs to prepare for an IPO in the region of $1bn.
A flood of start-up funding
Meanwhile, in Germany, Move24 raised €13m in Series C funding – the same amount as its Series B round last Autumn. The most recent round was led by Innogy Venture Capital.
Move24, as the name implies, provides moving and relocation services across Europe, varying from storage to cleaning.
Last week, Soylent, a company making meal-replacement products, raised $50m in a round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with investors including Andreessen Horowitz.
Soylent’s products, which include bottled drinks, food bars and powder mixes, are only available online. The company has raised around $74m in total.
Elsewhere, Cornershop, a grocery purchasing app in Chile and Mexico, has raised $21m. The company sources groceries for customers and delivers them to homes within 90 minutes.
