Razer

Founder/s: Robert Krakoff, Min-Liang Tan
Key people: Khaw Joo (COO), Robert Krakoff (Co-Founder and President), Edwin Chan (CFO), Mike Dilmagani (SVP – Sales & Marketing) and Min-Liang Tan (Co-Founder and CEO)
Number of employees: 501 – 1k

Razer™ is a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers.

Razer is transforming the way people play games, engage with other gamers and identify with the gamer lifestyle. Having won the coveted “Best of CES” award consecutively for six years, the company’s leadership in product innovation continues to create new categories for the gaming community that is estimated to have over 1 billion gamers worldwide.

Razer’s award-winning design and technology includ e an array of user interface and systems devices, voice-over IP for gamers and a cloud platform for customizing and enhancing gaming devices.

Founded in 2005, Razer is backed by Intel Capital, IDG-Accel and Heliconia Capital Management (Heliconia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore investment company Temasek.

History

Razer began as a subsidiary of kärna LLC in 1998, created to develop and market a high-end computer gaming mouse, the Boomslang, targeted to computer gamers. Kärna ceased operations in 2000 due to financial issues. The current iteration of Razer was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff after they procured the rights to the Razer brand.

At Consumer Electronics Show 2011, Razer unveiled the Razer Switchblade, a handheld gaming device prototype.

At CES 2013, Razer unveiled its Razer Edge gaming tablet computer, which was previously known as Project Fiona. The tablet uses the Windows 8 operating system and is designed with gaming in mind.

In May 2013, Razer unveiled the 14-inch Razer Blade and 17-inch Razer Blade Pro gaming laptops with fourth-generation Intel Haswell processors. The Razer Blade 14-inch portable gaming laptop was dubbed the “world’s thinnest gaming laptop” which weighed just 4.1 lbs., while the 17-inch screen Razer Blade Pro featured the built-in ‘Switchblade’ LCD display.

At CES 2014, Razer unveiled Project Christine, a modular gaming PC. Each of the branches on the PC is a discrete component—a CPU, a GPU, a hard drive, memory—that simply plug into the central backbone. Once slotted in, Project Christine automatically syncs the newly added modules through PCI-Express (the same serial bus that discrete graphics cards and other components currently use).

In July 2015, Razer announced it was purchasing the software division of video-game company Ouya.

At Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, Razer has been selected for People’s Choice Winner for Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook. The company won the year before for the Razer Forge TV, and this year, it took home the prize for the Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook, a super-slim gaming laptop.

In October 2016, Razer purchased THX according to THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor.

At CES 2017, Razer revealed Project Valerie, a triple display laptop, and Project Ariana, a projector that is designed to project onto a room with automatic room scanning.

In January 2017, Razer bought manufacturer Nextbit, the startup behind the Robin smartphone.