Razer, the gaming company that acquired the Robin smartphone maker Nextbit earlier this year, is now opening the curtains on the next steps to make a deeper move into the mobile space. Razer has announced a strategic partnership with Three, the Hong Kong-based mobile phone carrier owned by Hutchison Whampoa, in which the companies will sell co-branded, gaming-centric handsets and phone plans and open a new retail store in Hong Kong.
The deal is, in fact, part investment and part sales and marketing strategy: Li Ka-Shing, the magnate behind Hutchison and Three, is also taking a stake in Razer through his VC firm Horizons Ventures, according to Razer’s CEO Min-Liang Tan.
He declined to tell us the financial terms of Horizons Ventures’ investment. (We have asked others at the company and other sources and will update as we learn more.)
This is the latest chapter in how Razer has been trying to transform itself en route to a public listing or whatever the next stage of its company life might be. Starting first as a maker of peripherals like mouses and keyboards for hardcore gaming enthusiasts, Razer has been in more recent years building out its business (its motto, however, remains: “For Gamers. By Gamers.”). The company in recent years has expanded not just into PCs, but VR, wearables, social networks for gamers to communicate with each other, and new immersive technology for delivering gaming experiences.
To date, Razer has disclosed around $125 million of investment, but it has publicly confirmed that it has raised more. Sources told us in 2014 that Razer was valued at $1.5 billion.
It’s unclear when Horizons Ventures invested in Razer — specifically, whether it was part a past round and is only now being made public, or whether its involvement is something more recent. Other investors to date, besides Horizons Ventures, include Accel, IDG, Temasek’s Heliconia Capital Management, and China’s LianLuo.
Horizons Ventures is a prolific investor that has been a backer of dozens of tech startups, including Slack…