Singapore-based martial arts promotion ONE Championship laid off a few dozen employees in October 2024 on the same day it announced US$50 million in new funding from the Qatar Investment Authority. CEO Chatri Sityodtong insisted the company was on the verge of profitability, but the cuts fuelled persistent questions about its finances.
The cuts affected the Singapore headquarters across departments including broadcast, marketing, finance and public relations. In a virtual meeting and a subsequent staff email, founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong described the layoffs as part of the overall strategic plan to bring the company to profitability in the coming months. He told staff the company was on the verge of profitability through a combination of record revenues and cost efficiencies, but that the challenging global macroeconomic environment and capital markets' demand for immediate profitability required action.
Bloomberg reported the same week that Group One Holdings, ONE's parent, had raised at least US$50 million from investors including the Qatar Investment Authority, valuing the company at no less than US$1.35 billion. Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings is among its institutional backers.
It was not the first such episode. In June 2020, ONE cut 20 per cent of its global workforce during the pandemic while simultaneously announcing a US$70 million raise that Sityodtong said gave the company a nine-digit war chest. Reports at the time put its accumulated losses at US$126 million. Another round of layoffs followed at the end of June 2025.
Sityodtong has consistently pushed back against suggestions of financial distress. In January 2024 he dismissed reports of weak financials, saying the promotion hit record highs in every metric each year and comparing the scepticism to what Tesla and Amazon endured. The company has pointed to its Amazon Prime Video broadcast deal in the United States and its Sky Sports partnership in Britain as evidence of momentum, though industry observers noted ONE's US television ratings had disappointed, contributing to the end of its Turner Sports partnership in 2021.
For Singapore's sports industry, ONE remains its most prominent global brand, home to stars across MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. But the recurring pattern of layoffs paired with fundraising has kept questions about its path to sustainable profitability firmly in the spotlight.
The 2020 episode followed the same script: a 20 per cent global workforce reduction announced alongside a US$70 million raise that Sityodtong said created a nine-digit war chest, even as reports put accumulated losses at US$126 million. The company framed both rounds as prudence to protect longevity.
ONE's broadcast footprint includes an Amazon Prime Video deal in the United States, though observers noted its events failed to generate significant viewer engagement there, and a Sky Sports partnership for Britain and Ireland signed in late 2023. Its earlier three-year Turner Sports deal, which ran from 2019 to 2021 with events on TNT, ended after disappointing ratings that Sityodtong himself acknowledged.