Pandemic Aside, SoftBank-Backed Travel Platform Klook Raises $200 Million

Hong Kong’s travel and leisure booking platform Klook has closed a $200 million Series E funding round led by Aspex Management, with participation by Sequoia Capital China, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, Matrix Partners China and Boyu Capital, according to a press release.

“Despite a challenging 2020, we have shown our mettle, turning challenges into growth opportunities with agility and constant innovation,” Klook Co-Founder and CEO Ethan Lin said in the release. “We’ve observed over the past year that consumers have a pent-up desire to explore and enjoy themselves, despite international travel being paused.”

Lin added in the release that the new funds will help the company solidify its position as tourism slowly returns. During the past year, he said Klook quickly pivoted to meet the demands triggered by the pandemic. Klook concentrated on two main areas: digitizing the experiences booking sector and launching new verticals like staycations and car rentals.

“The travel industry has undoubtedly been hit hard by the pandemic, but Klook has shown resilience and adaptability despite the market headwinds,” Aspex Management Founder and Chief Information Officer Hermes Li said in the release. “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.”

Klook’s merchant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions power millions of bookings for more than 2,500 merchants across the globe, the release stated.

“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,” Klook Chief Operations Officer and Co-Founder Eric Gnock Fah said in the release. “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.”