Forrest Li on investment strategy
From Sea Q1 FY26 Earnings Call | $SE | 🔴 WATCH LIVE · · Benzinga
“We are investing deliberately to capture the growth runway ahead and we are confident of continuing to deliver robust topline growth while improving our adjusted IBIDA year on year.”
On , Forrest Li, CEO & Founder at Sea Limited, spoke about investment strategy during Sea Q1 FY26 Earnings Call | $SE | 🔴 WATCH LIVE on Benzinga.
About Forrest Li
Forrest Li, chairman and CEO of Sea Limited, said on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call that the company generated over $7 billion in revenue, a 47% year-on-year increase, and that adjusted EBITDA exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Li stated that 2026 is a year in which the company is “leaning into growth investment to deepen our competitive moat while maintaining financial discipline.” He noted that Shopee delivered a record-setting quarter, with GMV growing 30% year-on-year and adjusted EBITDA of over $220 million. Li said the company is on track to deliver its 2026 guidance of around 25% annual GMV growth for Shopee, with full-year adjusted EBITDA no lower than 2025 in absolute dollar terms. Li also reported that Sea’s loan book reached $9.9 billion at the end of March, an increase of more than 70% year-on-year while maintaining stable asset quality. He said Brazil was the company’s fastest-growing market in the first quarter and continued to be profitable, and that Brazil became the fourth market to cross $1 billion in loan book size, growing over 250% year-on-year. Li described the company’s credit business expansion along three fronts: deepening existing user relationships, acquiring new users with better risk scores, and expanding credit use cases beyond Shopee. He expressed confidence that the digital financial services business “will be a significant long-term profit contributor.”