Klook, a Hong Kong-based online travel booking start-up, has raised new money and turned profitable for the first time, amid a boom in post-pandemic international travel.

The company said on Thursday it received US$210 million in a new series E+ funding round led by US venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners and joined by Asian funds including BPEA EQT, Atinum Investment and Golden Vision Capital, as well as bank facilities from Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC.

Klook, started in Hong Kong in 2014, achieved unicorn status in 2018 after a US$200 million funding round that hoisted its valuation above US$1 billion.

Before that, the firm had raised US$721.5 million in seven funding rounds that included prominent backers such as SoftBank and Sequoia Capital China, which was renamed HongShan earlier this year, according to data from Crunchbase.

The online travel agency, which lets users book local tours, restaurants, hotels and transport around the world, also said it reached profitability for the first time earlier this year.

The company said it reached an annualised gross booking value of US$3 billion in 2023 – a threefold jump from 2019 – and acquired twice as many new customers as four years ago. Repeat customers made up over half of the bookings this year, it added.

“During the pandemic, we doubled down on our resources in merchant digitisation and the expansion of our supply network, including car rentals and outdoor experiences,” said CEO and co-founder Ethan Lin. “This positions us strongly to capture new travel trends coming out of the pandemic.”

While the company has not publicly announced any initial public offering plans, Klook is “prepared for … IPO readiness”, chief operating officer and co-founder Eric Gnock Fah said in a written comment to the Post.

But more importantly, the company hopes to “solidify its position as the category leader in travel experiences”, he said.

Klook will use the newly raised capital to expand its product offerings, boost digital marketing efforts and further integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in its operations, the company said.

The firm said last month it started using Google’s PaLM 2 large language model, accessible via the US tech giant’s cloud computing services, for automated translation. It also said it planned to explore the use of generative AI in its chatbot and for content generation.

After three years of Covid-19 travel restrictions, people in Hong Kong are planning to make up for lost time by taking more holidays abroad and spending longer time at their destinations, according to a survey by Klook.

While Hongkongers usually spent around HK$5,000 to HK$6,000 (US$640 to US$768) each when they went on holiday before the pandemic, survey respondents polled in June said they were prepared to shell out at least HK$10,000 per person on each coming trip.

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