Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Travel and leisure booking platform Klook has successfully concluded its Series E round investment, led by investment fund Aspex Management. The recently concluded investment round has raised US$200M in additional funding, which will be used to develop Klook-powered merchant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.
Klook’s merchant SaaS solutions power millions of bookings for more than 2,500 merchants worldwide. Doubling down on its SaaS solutions will enable even more merchants who have had a challenging year to transform and accelerate their business by easily creating an online storefront powered by Klook. This is supported by a backend engine that manages ticketing, distribution, inventory management, marketing, and more.
“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 (center).
He added, “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.”
At the height of the pandemic, Klook onboarded 150% more activities compared to the same period in 2019. With this new capital, the company will accelerate the development and roll-out of its merchant SaaS solutions. Designed to bridge the gaps faced by merchants today, these tools will empower any merchant to build, manage, and scale their business with Klook.
“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.
Meanwhile, Eric Gnock Fah, COO, and co-founder at Klook (left) commented, “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.”
He added, “With this new funding, we have additional ammunition to accelerate our technology innovation, and truly transform and empower this space for future growth.”
Klook has piloted several of its SaaS tools during the second of 2020 namely ‘Contact Tracing System’ which will be used to trace back clients should the need for tracing ensue, ‘Attractions Plus’ which creates an online itinerary for travel in one app, and ‘Klook! Live’ which is an interactive livestream mobile feature for merchants and users alike.
