When Forrest Li launched his e-commerce platform in 2015, it came with a symbolic shift—rebranding his original gaming company, Garena, to ‘Sea Limited’.
The new name, he said, was chosen for its simplicity and relatability. Since then, Sea has grown into Southeast Asia’s most valuable tech company by market capitalisation, with its e-commerce platform becoming a dominant player across the region.
A decade later, Li is making a similar bet—this time in digital finance. On Thursday (May 8), during Sea’s 16th anniversary celebration, the company announced the rebranding of its financial services arm from ‘SeaMoney’ to ‘Monee’, a name Li described as “simple and cute” in his speech.
The name may be playful, but the ambitions behind it are anything but. On the day of the rebrand announcement, Sea inaugurated a new global headquarters for its digital finance operations in Singapore—signalling a deeper push into the sector.
The headquarters, located at Rochester Commons, spans 10 floors and more than 200,000 square feet. It will house over 1,000 employees initially, with space for up to 1,500.
Singapore’s Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng, who attended the event, welcomed the move. “It is even more important that Singapore continues to nurture and anchor enterprises like Sea—ones that reinforce our position as a hub for ideas, talent, and investments, and open up new opportunities for our economy and our people,” he said.
