Klook's origin story began with a pile of cash and too little reliable information. During a 2013 trip to Nepal, future co-founders Ethan Lin and Eric Gnock Fah struggled to find and evaluate local activities, Lin told Tech in Asia. The uncertainty around reviews, prices and whether an offer was legitimate gave the two investment bankers a problem worth leaving finance to solve.
They co-founded Klook in 2014 and later added software engineer Bernie Xiong as the third co-founder. The company built a marketplace for booking travel experiences, an area that was less standardized online than flights and hotels.
More than a decade later, Klook has grown into one of Asia's largest travel-experiences platforms. Tech in Asia reports that it reached unicorn status in 2018, has raised more than $1 billion, offers over 350,000 experiences and has facilitated more than 65 million bookings. The company announced its first profitability in 2023.
Klook has also pushed beyond Asia-Pacific. The United States has become one of its largest markets as more American travelers look for experiences in the region, while a network of more than 30,000 content creators helps the company reach customers.
That growth has not followed a straight line. The interview centers on Lin's experience steering Klook through repeated shocks and resisting the urge to build products simply because they appear fashionable. The accessible portion of Tech in Asia's premium interview does not include his full account of those lessons, so the clearest public takeaway is the scale Klook reached from a specific, firsthand travel problem rather than a sweeping formula for startup success.
