Klook, a world-leading travel and leisure booking platform, announced that it has raised $200 million in additional funding. The Series E round was led by Aspex Management, an investment fund focused on Asia Pacific, in addition to other new investors.
Sequoia Capital China, Softbank Vision Fund 1, Matrix Partners China, and Boyu Capital, who are existing investors, also participated in this round of funding.
Founded in 2014, Klook is a world-leading travel and leisure booking platform. Klook empowers users around the world to discover and book the best experiences and services anywhere, anytime.
During the past year, Klook quickly re-prioritized its core strategic strengths to tackle the impact of the pandemic on the business. The company focused on two main areas – digitizing the experiences booking sector, and launching new verticals such as staycations and car rental.
“Despite a challenging 2020, we have shown our mettle, turning challenges into growth opportunities with agility and constant innovation. We’ve observed over the past year that consumers have a pent-up desire to explore and enjoy themselves, despite international travel being paused. Instead, they are turning inwards – exploring new and unique experiences right in their backyard,” said Ethan Lin, CEO and Co-Founder at Klook. “This new capital further strengthens our leading position to take us from defense to offense, as domestic tourism becomes ubiquitous and international travel gradually returns.”
“The travel industry has undoubtedly been hit hard by the pandemic, but Klook has shown resilience and adaptability despite the market headwinds. We believe the transition toward digital bookings will only accelerate post COVID-19, and that Klook’s ability to reinvent itself as a one-stop-shop for experiences and services across the region puts it in prime position to capitalize on this trend,” said Hermes Li, CIO and Founder of Aspex Management.
New capital to accelerate the development and digital transformation for merchants, the startup said in a statement.
“We are setting out to reimagine the next digital leap for the experiences sector which has traditionally been fragmented with offline practices or legacy systems that do not truly address the realities of a post-COVID world. Since day one, Klook has been working closely with our merchants, both big and small, to identify common pain points that we can solve together. With this new funding, we have additional ammunition to accelerate our technology innovation, and truly transform and empower this space for future growth,” added Eric Gnock Fah, COO and Co-Founder at Klook.
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