Hong Kong's Klook gets $200m Series D
Hong Kong travel services company Klook has closed a $200 million Series D funding round from a group of investors including Sequoia Capital China, Matrix Partners, and Goldman Sachs.
Additional participants included Boyu Capital, TCV, OurCrowd, an Asian sovereign wealth fund, and a number of unspecified family offices. The investment brings Klook's total capital raised to $300 million and is said to establish the company as one of the best-funded players in the tourist activities segment globally.
Founded in 2014, Klook offers a global holiday booking platform that covers attractions, tours, and local experiences, as well as local transport including railway services. The platform facilitates more than 50,000 activities and services provided by some 5,000 partners in 200 destinations. The company claims to be on track to achieve $1 billion in bookings in 2018.
Klook operates via 16 offices globally with a strong focus on Asia and is preparing to open a new base in the US by the end of the year. It also plans to add more US and Europe curated activities and services to its platform to fulfill increasing demand from Asian travelers seeking unique in-destination experiences. This will coincide with an effort to bring more Western travelers to Asia.
"By leveraging their strength in digitally transforming their suppliers of tours and activities and tapping into the new generation of mobile-first travelers, Klook is emerging as the clear leader in the online tours and activities sector," Neil Shen, managing partner at Sequoia China, said in a statement. "We look forward to seeing Klook help more and more travelers connect to suppliers and become a key source of inbound demand for Asia and beyond."
Sequoia, Matrix, and Goldman Sachs led a $60 million Series C for the company in October last year with participation from OurCrowd. A $30 million Series B earlier was provided earlier the same year by Sequoia, with additional backing from Matrix and Welight Capital, a firm founded by Xiaoguang Wu, a senior adviser at Tencent Holdings. Matrix led a $5 million Series A in 2015 alongside China Growth Capital and Francis Leung, a senior advisor for Asia at CVC Capital Partners.
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