Hong Kong-based travel startup Klook raises $60M Series C led by Goldman Sachs and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners
US$179 billion. That's how much the online travel booking industry was worth last year. That's set to expand to US$288 billion by 2021.
Context & Ripple Effects
The $60M Series C lands just seven months after Klook's $30M Series B led by Sequoia China, making 2017 the year the Hong Kong activities-booking startup doubled its fundraising cadence. What is new is who is writing the lead check: Goldman Sachs, a bank stepping into a round otherwise filled by existing venture backers Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners.
The article frames the prize explicitly — an online travel booking industry worth US$179 billion last year, headed to US$288 billion by 2021 — and Klook's slice of it is experiences and activities rather than flights and hotels, where Asia-to-Asia travelers are the core demand.
First-order effects
- Klook gets a war chest to scale its activities inventory across Asian markets, while Goldman Sachs gains a direct growth-equity position in consumer travel tech rather than an advisory relationship.
Second-order effects
- Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners re-upping alongside a bank lead validates the category for other allocators — within a year Klook raised a $200M Series D, confirming the escalation.
- Incumbent Trip.com responds on the same capital battlefield: its planned ~$1.09B Hong Kong secondary listing shows Asia online travel consolidating around whoever can fund the widest inventory.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, bank balance sheets become a standing feature of late-stage Asia travel funding — Klook's later rounds drew SoftBank's Vision Fund and, after turning cash flow positive in mid-2023, Bessemer — pushing the sector toward a few deeply capitalized platforms rather than many regional bookers.
The trend: Asia's online travel market is consolidating through ever-larger funding rounds, with financial institutions like Goldman Sachs joining venture firms as direct backers of regional platforms.