SINGAPORE (April 9): Klook, the Hong Kong-based travel booking platform today announced the completion of its US$425 million ($575.3 million) series D funding after it raised over US$225 million in a series D+ round.
The US$100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund led Klook’s latest funding round, which also saw participation from other existing investors including Sequoia China, Matrix Partners, TCV, and OurCrowd.
In a Tuesday release, Klook says its latest capital raise represent the global travel activities & services industry’s largest financing ever.
The firm intends to scale its operations into new geographies with the additional founding, while it also continues to expand in existing Asian markets such as Japan.
Highlighting Japan as one of Klook’s most important markets and also the headquarters of Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group, the firm says it intends to “deepen its investments” ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
It also plans to expand into additional Japanese cities to better service both inbound and outbound visitors.
“We believe Klook is a leader in taking a mobile-first approach to the travel activities and services industry,” said Lydia Jett, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.
“The company has seen great success in scaling its business across different geographies and cultures, and we are excited to help them drive further innovation in the global travel industry.”
Klook’s announcement comes a day after that of ride-hailing app Grab, which said it expected to reach the US$6.5 billion capital mark by end-2019 after its own SoftBank-led Series H round.
Last month, Grab said it secured a US$1.46 billion capital injection from Softbank Group to help fund its expansion.
