Technology

Posted on August 7, 2018 by staff

Asia’s largest booking platform expands to US and EU

Technology

Asia’s largest in-destination services booking platform has announced $200 million in financing to help the company with its expanded offices in London and Amsterdam, and its future offices in the US.

Founded in 2014 by Ethan Lin, Eric Gnock Fah and Bernie Xiong, Klook claims to be one of the world’s fastest-growing platforms for booking in-destination services, tours, and activities via desktop or mobile app.

The company offers more than 50,000 activities and services offered by over 5,000 travel service operators at 200+ destinations worldwide to the millions of people who visit the Klook.com site or use the mobile app.

“Eric, Bernie and I founded Klook as a way to take the stress and guesswork out of what to do and see when you travel for extended vacations or a few hours of business downtime,” said CEO and co-founder Ethan Lin.

“When we started, we never could have envisioned what a major need this was in the market. We now receive more than 16 million online visits on the Klook web site or mobile app on a monthly basis.

“We’re excited to team with TCV and our existing investors to bring this same experience to travellers in the US and Europe.”

The $200 million was raised from investors Sequoia China, TCV, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, Boyu Capital and an Asia-based sovereign wealth fund and family offices.

David Yuan, general partner at TCV, said: “Klook is at the forefront of transforming the travel industry and we’ve been impressed with the team and the company’s growth.

“We are excited to help them advance their global strategy and expansion.”