Forbes’ Jessica Tan gets to know Garena’s Co-Founder and CEO, Forrest Li, and finds out how he stumbled in his first venture and later went on to found Southeast Asia’s largest internet company.

    From a small team in a Singapore shop house six years ago to a 3,000-strong regional team today, Garena has grown to become one of Southeast Asia’s largest and most successful start-ups. In this exclusive interview, Li explains how Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford ten years ago inspired him to embark on his first internet venture.

Today, Garena is Singapore’s first ‘unicorn’ internet company – joining a rarefied group of start-ups with valuations of over a billion dollars. With the company’s roots in entertainment and digital content, Garena has amassed over 140 million users in the region. Since then, Garena has extended its reach to other services such as social commerce, communication and financial services, geared towards serving the underserved consumers in Southeast Asia.

Garena’s investors include Tencent, General Atlantic, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Garena has also been doing plenty of investment of its own; for example, putting its weight behind Redmart, the online e-commerce grocery business, to foster the internet start-up ecosystem in Southeast Asia.

For Li, the business is about continually pushing the boundaries to achieve the unimaginable.

    Read more at: Game for Garena: Singapore's Answer to Tencent and Alibaba