Singapore-based gaming and e-commerce startup Sea Ltd., formerly known as Garena, Friday filed for an initial public offering of shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) L.L.C. are acting as joint book runners for the IPO. Although the number of shares to be issued and their price range has not yet been set, according to reports the IPO could raise $1 billion.

Founded in 2009, Sea initially started as an online gaming company before later diversifying into e-commerce and digital payment services. The company operates a range of sites, including its gaming platform Garena, online shopping portal Shopee and digital payments service AirPay across Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.

The company is growing rapidly but that growth has also produced continuing losses. Revenue rose from $160.8 million in 2014 to $354.7 million in 2016, but losses over the same period grew from $90.9 million to $225 million. Revenue for the first six months of 2017 came in at $195 million, with a loss of $165 million.

Much of the company’s losses are attributed to marketing and sales promotion, with Shopee competing directly against larger competitors including the now majority Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-owned Lazada, Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce portal, and various companies backed by JD.com Inc., China’s second largest e-commerce provider after Alibaba. They include a joint venture in Thailand with Central Group and investments in Indonesia. Both Alibaba and JD.com also offer online and mobile payment solutions that compete directly with Sea’s Airpay.

Sea’s float is also notable for being the first Singapore-founded tech unicorn to go public in the United States. The valuation on the raise was not disclosed, but the company was valued at $2.5 billion as of its latest venture capital round and its valuation for its IPO is expected to come in at about $3.5 billion.

Prior to the filing, Sea had raised $722 million. The long list of investors includes Cathay Financial Holding, Farallon Capital Management, GDP Venture, General Atlantic, Government of Singapore, Hillhouse Capital Group, JG Summit Holdings, Keystone Ventures, Khazanah Nasional, Mistletoe, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, SeaTown International and Uni-President Enterprises Corp. The company’s largest shareholder, with a 39.7 percent stake, is Tencent Holdings Ltd., one of China’s largest Internet and digital services companies.

Photo: Sea/screenshot