Southeast Asian start-up Sea has reportedly filed for an initial public offering in the US aimed at raising $1 billion, according to Bloomberg reports on Tuesday.
Sea, who changed its name from Garena earlier this month, filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission with the intention of listing at the beginning of 2018. The IPO is set to be underwritten by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
If the IPO goes ahead as anticipated and reaches $1 billion in value, Sea would become the largest tech start-up to come out of the region. The company, a consumer internet platform founded in 2009, is backed by major Chinese company Tencent, and earlier this month raised another $550 million in funding as it steps up a battle with Tencent’s rival Alibaba. Its revenues surpassed $300 million for the first time last year, despite an increase in competition from other startups in the region.
Choosing to list overseas listing of Sea come as a blow for the company’s home country of Singapore, who have been trying to attract a larger set of fast-growing, innovative companies and further its name in the startup sector.