Shopee HQ: Address, Owner & Company Timeline Explained

If you’re trying to track down Shopee’s headquarters  whether for a partnership inquiry, a shipping or logistics question, a legal filing, or simple curiosity  the short answer is that Shopee HQ sits inside Singapore Science Park, in the Kent Ridge area of Singapore, at 5 Science Park Drive. That’s the building Shopee moved into in September 2019, and it remains the company’s regional headquarters today.

But a search for “Shopee HQ” almost always brings up three more questions in the same breath: who actually owns Shopee, whether Garena and Shopee are the same company, and how a Singapore startup grew from a seven-market mobile app into the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. These questions matter because Shopee’s corporate structure isn’t as simple as “one company, one owner.” Shopee is a subsidiary, its parent company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and its ownership is split between a founder with majority voting control and a mix of institutional shareholders.

This guide answers all of it directly. You’ll get the exact HQ address and building details, a plain-English breakdown of who owns Shopee, a clear explanation of the Shopee–Garena relationship (the two are connected, but not the way most people assume), a short overview of what Shopee actually does, and a timeline of the company’s biggest milestones from its 2015 launch to today.

One fact worth understanding before diving into the address and ownership details: Shopee is a private operating subsidiary. It doesn’t file its own separate public financial reports; its results are folded into its parent company’s disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That single detail explains most of the confusion behind “who owns Shopee” and “Garena Shopee” searches, and it’s the reason the ownership section below focuses on the parent company rather than Shopee alone.

Shopee itself launched on February 5, 2015, in Queenstown, Singapore, as a mobile-first marketplace designed around the region’s fast-growing smartphone use. It entered seven markets at once: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines  at a time when other players like Lazada and Qoo10 already had a head start. Within a few years it overtook them by average monthly active users, and it has since expanded well beyond Southeast Asia. That growth is exactly why the company outgrew its original office and eventually built the headquarters described below.

Shopee HQ Address: Where Is Shopee Headquartered?

Quick answer: Shopee’s headquarters is located at 5 Science Park Drive, Shopee Building, Singapore 118265, inside Singapore Science Park near Kent Ridge. The company officially opened this building on September 3, 2019.

The current Shopee HQ replaced an earlier and much smaller office at the Ascent Building. The new building spans about 244,000 square feet across six stories and was purpose-built to accommodate up to 3,000 employees  roughly six times the capacity of Shopee’s previous space. The site had originally been leased by WeWork before it was relinquished and taken over by Shopee. Inside, the building includes a marketing studio used to film live-commerce programming like Shopee Live and Shopee Quiz, along with collaborative work areas and staff amenities. Singapore has remained Shopee’s base since the company had just ten employees, and the 2019 move was framed publicly as a long-term commitment to keep its regional operations, tech hiring, and product development centered there.

Who Owns Shopee? Understanding Sea Limited

Shopee is not an independently owned company, it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), a Singapore-headquartered technology conglomerate. Sea Limited is Shopee’s actual “owner” in a corporate sense, and Sea Limited’s own headquarters is a separate address: 1 Fusionopolis Place, #17-10, Galaxis, Singapore 138522.

Ownership of Sea Limited itself is split between its founder and outside institutional investors. As of Sea’s most recent SEC filing, founder, chairman, and CEO Forrest Li beneficially controls roughly 57.6% of the company’s total voting power through his Class B shares, which each carry 15 votes versus one vote for a Class A share  even though his direct economic stake in the company is far smaller. Tencent Holdings, the Chinese technology group that was Sea’s earliest major backer, has been steadily unwinding its position for years: it converted its supervoting Class B shares into ordinary Class A shares and ended its voting-proxy arrangement with Li in 2022, then continued selling down its stake, which fell from roughly 21% at its peak to under 10% by mid-2026  low enough that it no longer counts as a substantial shareholder. Other holders include large asset managers such as Baillie Gifford and BlackRock Fund Advisors.

In practical terms: when someone asks “who owns Shopee,” the accurate answer is Sea Limited, a NYSE-listed company, with Forrest Li as its founder and controlling shareholder.

Is Shopee Owned by Garena?

This is one of the most common mix-ups in “owner Shopee” searches, and the short answer is no, Garena does not own Shopee. The two are sibling business units under the same parent company, Sea Limited.

Here’s how the relationship actually works: Forrest Li founded the company in Singapore in 2009 under the name Garena, originally as a gaming publisher best known internationally for the mobile game Free Fire. In 2015, the group launched Shopee as its move into e-commerce. In 2017, when the holding company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, it rebranded from Garena to Sea Limited  at that point, “Garena” narrowed to refer specifically to the gaming division, while Sea Limited became the name of the overall parent company. So Garena and Shopee sit side by side as divisions of Sea Limited, alongside the group’s digital financial services arm (branded Monee); neither one owns the other.

Shopee About Us: What the Company Actually Does

Shopee describes itself as the leading e-commerce platform across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, with an established presence in Brazil and other Latin American markets. It operates as a hybrid consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer marketplace, meaning both individual sellers and registered brands list products side by side on the same platform.

A few features define Shopee’s model: Shopee Guarantee, an escrow-style service that holds buyer payments until an order is confirmed received, addressing trust concerns common in early e-commerce markets; Shopee Mall, a section reserved for verified official brand stores; and in-app entertainment features like live shopping streams and interactive games designed to keep users engaged beyond a simple checkout flow. The platform is mobile-first by design, reflecting Southeast Asia’s high smartphone adoption relative to desktop internet use when Shopee launched.

Shopee Company Timeline: Key Milestones

In 2009  Forrest Li founded Garena in Singapore, initially as a gaming company.

2015  Shopee launched on February 5 as a mobile-first marketplace across seven markets: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

2016  Shopee introduces Shopee University, a seller-education program for local entrepreneurs.

2017  Shopee launches Shopee Mall for official brand stores; parent company rebrands from Garena to Sea Limited and lists on the NYSE, raising roughly $884 million in its IPO.

2019  Shopee enters Brazil, its first Latin American market, and opens its current six-story regional headquarters at Singapore Science Park on September 3.

2020  Shopee launches its own logistics arm, Shopee Express, and its mobile payment system, ShopeePay.

2022  Shopee’s adjusted EBITDA turns positive for the first time, in the fourth quarter, as Sea Limited shifts strategy from rapid expansion toward profitability.

2024  Shopee logs its first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA, with annual gross merchandise value surpassing $100 billion and more than 10 billion orders placed on the platform for the first time.

2025 onward  Shopee remains Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform by gross merchandise value, continuing to expand its footprint in Latin America.

The Bottom Line

Shopee’s headquarters is a fixed, verifiable address  5 Science Park Drive, Shopee Building, Singapore 118265  inside Singapore Science Park, occupied since September 2019. Ownership, by contrast, runs through its parent: Shopee is a subsidiary of Sea Limited, a NYSE-listed company controlled by founder Forrest Li, with Garena sitting alongside Shopee as a separate division rather than an owner. Together, the Shopee HQ location, its Sea Limited ownership structure, and its growth timeline since 2015 give a complete, accurate picture of how the company is actually organized, useful whether you’re evaluating a partnership, doing investment research, or just settling a factual question about the platform.

FAQ

What is Shopee’s exact HQ address?
Shopee’s headquarters address is 5 Science Park Drive, Shopee Building, Singapore 118265, located in Singapore Science Park near Kent Ridge.

Who owns Shopee?
Shopee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), a Singapore-based technology conglomerate. Sea Limited’s founder, chairman, and CEO, Forrest Li, holds majority voting control of the parent company.

Is Shopee owned by Garena?
No. Garena and Shopee are both subsidiaries of the same parent company, Sea Limited. Garena, originally the company’s founding gaming business, does not own or control Shopee  they’re sibling divisions.

When did Shopee move into its current headquarters?
Shopee officially opened its current six-story headquarters at Singapore Science Park on September 3, 2019, replacing its earlier, smaller office at the Ascent Building.

What does Shopee actually do?
Shopee is a mobile-first e-commerce marketplace operating across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Latin America, combining consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer selling with features like escrow-based buyer protection and live shopping streams.

Is Shopee a public company?
Shopee itself is not separately publicly traded. Its parent company, Sea Limited, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SE, and Shopee’s financial results are reported as part of Sea Limited’s disclosures.