Razer launches regional headquarters in Singapore, plans to grow local staff count to 1,000

RAZER has launched a new South-east Asia headquarters in Singapore amid regional expansion plans and a hiring road map that will bump its local team up from 600 to 1,000 employees.

The gaming hardware company's US$100 million building officially opened on Tuesday (Oct 26) at the one-north technology hub. The building has 180,000 square feet of net lettable area and eco-friendly features such as solar panels.

About 80,000 sq ft across three floors will be used by Razer for its office, design studios and research and development (R&D) labs. The rest of the area will be leased; co-working company JustCo is a key tenant.

Razer is ramping up hiring at a time when companies are jostling for tech talent. Organisations are raising salary offers and sweetening benefit packages for roles such as software developers.

Global big-tech companies and regional unicorns are also increasing their presence in South-east Asia to tap an Internet economy projected to hit US$300 billion by 2025.

Tan Min-Liang, co-founder and chief executive of the Hong Kong-listed company, said: "The new regional hub represents everything that Razer stands for, from innovation to design to sustainability, and will not only be home to Razer's growing staff, but to up-and-coming entrepreneurs, and even gamers looking for a place to train and learn as well."

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Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat urged Singapore's large companies to build a deeper stack of intellectual property and intangible assets, and turn them into competitive advantages. Such a strategy is critical to thrive in a technology-intensive, innovation-driven economy, he said.

Mr Heng noted that Razer had started off with a single product - the gaming mouse, and then expanded into other products and services, including laptops, gaming chairs and financial technology.

Underpinning the group's growth is its commitment to R&D, he said. Razer has on average invested about 8 per cent of its annual revenue in it and holds more than 1,200 patents and patent applications, and more than 550 design applications and registrations.

"In addition to undertaking R&D in-house, I also encourage (companies) to work more closely with our research ecosystem - through corporate labs, tech consortia, joint ventures, or other modalities," Mr Heng said.

Razer's new location in one-north is home to a number of tech companies. Gaming companies Ubisoft, YOOZOO Games and Bandai Namco have parked themselves there, as have animation studio Lucasfilm and Singapore-headquartered Grab and Sea.

Tech companies are experiencing a boom during the pandemic. Higher sales of gaming hardware helped Razer hit record revenue in the half-year ended June, leading to a US$31.3 million net profit - a reversal from a US$17.7 million loss a year ago. 

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