Garena rebrands as Sea

Forrest Li, founder and group chief executive officer of Garena Interactive Holding Ltd., speaks during an interview at the companys headquarters in Singapore, on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016. Garena, a gaming and e-commerce empire that is now Southeast Asias largest startup, is a Singapore-based company thats valued at more than 3.75 billion. Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg

SINGAPORE: Garena has rebranded as Sea Ltd after South-East Asia’s most valuable startup secured US$550mil in funds to step up a battle with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and other players in Indonesia.

The eight-year-old startup backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd landed a clutch of new investors in its latest funding round, including some of the region’s wealthiest families.