Secretlab is a Singaporean

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

company established by

Ian Ang Ian Alexander Ang Zheng Wei (born ) is a Singaporean entrepreneur and businessman. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of gaming chair company Secretlab. Career In December 2014, while enrolled in an Information Systems undergraduat ...

and Alaric Choo in 2014. It primarily designs and manufactures

gaming chair A gaming chair is a type of chair designed for the comfort of gamers. They differ from most office chairs in having high backrest designed to support the upper back and shoulders. They are also more customizable: the armrests, back, lumbar suppor ...

History

Secretlab was founded as a startup company in December 2014 by former professional

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

players Ian Alexander Ang and Alaric Choo, both of whom specialised in '' StarCraft II''. Its starting capital, which came from the two founders' savings, was S$50,000, and went mostly into research and development. The company's first product was a

, the Secretlab Throne V1, that was launched in March 2015. Two more chairs, the Throne V2 and the Omega, were released in October 2015. In 2020, the company sold its millionth chair. In 2020 and 2021, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, demand for the company's chairs rose greatly, partly because of office workers who had to work from home. In April 2021, the company unveiled the Magnus, a magnetic metal desk.

Facilities and partners

The company operates its corporate headquarters, a research and development facility, and an esports gaming arena along Braddell Road, Singapore. It also has a factory in China. The company has partnered multiple times with organisers of official

tournaments, where the partnership involves Secretlab providing chairs for the players. In partnership with

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, it introduced

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

-themed gaming chairs.

Sales and finances

In August 2019, Heliconia Capital Management, a subsidiary of the Singaporean wealth fund

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

, bought a minority stake in the company, causing its market capitalisation to reach a reported S$200300 million. Secretlab reported 2020 chair deliveries of "at least" 500,000. For the fiscal year 2020, the annual operating profit and revenue were an estimated S$70 million and S$350 million respectively. In March 2021, ''Tech in Asia'' estimated that the company was "within striking distance of surpassing US$1 billion in valuation", thereby making it a

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Reception of products

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' named Secretlab's Omega 2020 the best gaming chair of 2019, praising it for its adjustable armrest; the same product was named best gaming chair in 2020 by ''GamesRadar+''. ''T3'' called the Magnus the best gaming accessory of 2021, while ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' listed the Titan Evo 2022 as the best gaming chair of 2022. In 2020, there were complaints that the covering of certain chairs sometimes peeled away; Ang commented that this was due to unexpectedly high humidity and that it was being addressed.

References

External links