Vision Fund leads $225m round for Hong Kong’s Klook
Klook, a Hong Kong-headquartered booking platform for attractions, tours, dining and local experiences, has raised $225 million in an extended Series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund.
Existing investors Sequoia Capital China, Matrix Partners China, TCV, and equity crowdfunding platform Ourcrowd re-upped, according to a statement. This round comes eight months after Klook’s $200 million Series D, which also featured the likes of Goldman Sachs and Boyu Capital. Overall, the company has raised $521.5 million across six rounds since 2015.
The new funding will be used to maintain the company’s leading position in its existing markets while helping it expand into other geographies. Klook told Chinese media group 36kr that it planned to enhance its operations in Japan with SoftBank's support. This includes rolling out a Japanese version of its app.
Founded in 2014, Klook offers booking services for over 100,000 tourist attractions and customized travel itineraries in 270 global destinations through an online platform and a mobile app. It claims to have generated $1 billion in operating revenue for 2018 as booking increased 300% year-on-year. At present, around 75% of bookings are made via mobile app. An average of 25 million unique users visit the website and app on a monthly basis.
Klook has a strong focus on Asia, but there are now 20 offices worldwide and it has made a concerted effort to expand coverage of the US, Australia, and Europe. Last year, the company added more US and Europe-based activities and services to meet the needs of Asian travelers. It also wants to bring more Western visitors to Asia.
One of Klook's strongest rivals is Taiwan-based KKday, which offers more than 20,000 experiences in 80 countries and 500 cities through its online platform. KKday raised an extended Series B round of undisclosed size from Alibaba Group and Line Corporation in 2018. It also set up a Chinese service in cooperation with Alibaba’s Fliggy travel platform.
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