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Forrest Li
Singaporean billionaire (born c. 1977) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Forrest Li Xiaodong (born 1977 or 1978) is a Singaporean billionaire businessman. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Sea Limited, a company with subsidiaries including Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney.[3] In addition, he is the chairman of Lion City Sailors FC, as well as president of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).
Li is married and lives in Singapore.[1] He appeared on the August 2020 cover of Forbes Asia, the Asia edition of Forbes magazine.[4] As of April 5, 2024, his net worth was estimated at US$3.6 billion according to the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, ranking him as the ninth richest person in Singapore.[5][6]
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Early life and education
Forrest Li Xiaodong was born in Tianjin, China. He earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.[1]
Li moved to Singapore with limited financial resources and substantial student loan debt amounting to $100,000. Upon his arrival, he and his wife rented a single bedroom in a three-room HDB flat in Braddell. He later became a permanent resident of Singapore and took up citizenship.[7]
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Career
Li founded Sea in 2009, initially as a digital entertainment company under the name Garena.[8] At the time, the company had only operated out of a single shophouse off Maxwell Road at Tanjong Pagar.[9] The company first focused on game publishing.[10] Over the years, Li's company diversified its business to include e-commerce and digital financial services.[11] In 2015, Garena launched Shopee, an e-commerce platform that grew to become one of the leading online shopping service providers in Southeast Asia.[12] Later, the company introduced SeaMoney, which offers digital financial services including payments and lending.
In May 2017, after raising US$550 million in a funding round, Garena underwent a corporate rebranding and adopted the name Sea Ltd, while retaining use of the name Garena for Sea's digital entertainment segment.[11]
In March 2019, after the share price of his consumer internet company Sea Ltd increased by 45%, Li's net worth increased to more than $1 billion.[13]
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Football involvement
Li is a football enthusiast and serves as the chairman of the Lion City Sailors, a Singapore Premier League football club acquired by Sea in 2020.[14][15] In 2025, Li was elected unopposed as the president of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS).[16] Li stated his priority will be to expand youth-development pathways for local players.[17]
References
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