Sea's Nick Nash to step down, launch VC firm

The new firm will invest in companies across Southeast Asia, India and China, Nash told AVCJ, looking for start-ups that have the potential to build a presence in multiple countries. Investments will focus on Series B and C stages, where Nash sees a relative lack of VC commitment in the region compared to early and later-stage funding rounds.

"To organically build a multi-country business in Asia has never really been done except by a few. So I want to fill the capital gap and the multi-country gap," Nash said. "I think that's a very powerful strategy: it has real public policy and social good implications, and I think it could also be very lucrative."

Nash joined Sea, then called Garena, in 2014, leaving his position as head of the Singapore office for General Atlantic (GA). He had spent more than 10 years at GA - where he led the firm's initial investment in Garena in 2014 - following a stint as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.

As group president, Nash has concentrated on growing Sea from a Singapore-based gaming platform to a regional internet company based on a three-pronged strategy of digital content platform Garena, online payment platform AirPay, and e-commerce marketplace Shopee. The company went public last year, raising $884 million in its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sea has received significant support from China's Tencent Holdings, which has backed the company since its Series A round. Additional investors include Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Global Digital Prima Ventures of Indonesia.

At the close of trading on February 28 Sea's stock price stood at $10.96 per share, below the IPO price of $15. The company reported overall revenue of $553.6 million for the year ended December 2017, up from $348.9 million in 2016. This was primarily fueled by the digital entertainment division, which posted revenue of $495.9 million and EBITDA of $174.9 million, up from $331.3 million and $85.5 million, respectively, the previous year.

The company overall continued to report a net loss of $533 million for 2017, widening from $196 million the year before. Investment in Shopee was a significant factor. The division generated revenue of $17.7 million against a net loss of $452 million, compared to $172 million the previous year.

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