The story behind Klook – a million dollar startup inspired by a bad travel experience

Klook is a startup company that provides services for tourism activities such as searching, booking, prepaid services, etc… In this article, let’s meet Eric Gnock Fah, the founder of Klook, who created the company that has recently been valued at $1 billion from a bad travel experience. 

While traveling in Nepal with a group of friends, Eric Gnock Fah and Ethan Lin realized that they had to pay cash to use all the services there. Even companies that organize tours with paragliding, they don’t use credit cards or other digital payment methods, so they have to bring thousands of dollars in cash. “Although we spent a lot of time researching and planning the trip, there was no magic button to make transactions more convenient and trouble-free,” Gnock Fah said.

That experience gave Gnock Fah and Lin, both former employees of an investment bank based in Hong Kong, the idea of ​​creating an online platform where tourists can book and pay for works first. So they went on LinkedIn to find the best software engineer, Bernie Xiaokang Xiong, and with his support, they founded Klook together. Xiong, who is living in Hong Kong, is the technology director of Klook, Gnock Fah is the chief executive and Lin is the CEO.

First launched in September 2014, Klook, which stands for “keep looking”, allows users to find, book and pay online for activities, tours, transportation and tickets when visiting famous sites. So, what can’t Klook’s customers reserve? The answers are Flights and hotels, as according to Klook’s founders, the service on these specific two was inherently good. New York-based travel research company Phocuswright predicts that the active booking market, also known as the destination market, will increase from $135 billion in 2016 to $183 billion in 2020. “We studied the field of tourism and wondered: Where can we increase value?”, Gnock Fah, who first moved to Hong Kong in 2007 from his homeland in Mauritius to get a job at Morgan Stanley. “The market at the destination is ready to integrate and apply technology.”

Klook launched its mobile application in March 2015, later on Apple iTunes across 14 countries and regions in Asia. From here saw the company’s important event: one of Klook’s original investors, Zhuyan Li, vice president of Matrix Partners China, discovered the app on the iTunes store and contacted Klook saying he wanted to invest.

Li, a former Baidu product manager, saw an opportunity for Klook’s exponential growth worldwide. “We think Klook can grow globally like Meituan – a global delivery service supported by Tencent.” Meituan raised $ 4.2 billion in an IPO last September. “Currently Klook is based in Hong Kong and used across Asia, we can also see Klook’s potential to expand further in Europe and North America.” Li said.

Klook has been extended to Europe, with offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona and London. Here, they are facing competition from GetYourGuide – a Berlin-based startup recently called for $500 million from a group of investors led by Softbank. Gnock Fah said that Klook offers a range of great services like car rental and airport transfers that allow more users to be attracted.