KKday, a Taiwan-based online platform for booking holiday tours and activities, announced that it has raised US$75 million in a series C funding round led by Cool Japan Fund and National Development Fund.
Existing investors Monk’s Hill Ventures and MindWorks Capital also participated in the round.
KKday founder Ming Chen / Photo credit: KKday
The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand in Asia and globally as well as to develop a new solution called Rezio for travel operators and activity providers.
In March, Rezio began piloting in Taiwan and Japan. It is a software-as-a-service system that helps suppliers, including activity providers and travel operators, to build their own website and manage their bookings in real time.
An all-in-one platform, Rezio allows users to set up an online store, do real-time inventory management across different booking channels, create customized vouchers for various booking scenarios, and integrate with local payment gateways.
How much traction has it gotten? KKday said that Rezio has been adopted by over 300 providers across the two pilot markets in six months and has served over 150,000 customers.
Despite Covid-19, the company continues to expand with over 5 million users on its platform, hosting over 30,000 specially curated experiences in over 550 cities in more than 92 countries, according to a statement.
Since May, KKday has been seeing a surge in demand for local experiences in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
What challenges has it faced recently? “The tours and activities ecosystem is fragmented, lacks standardization and digitalization. This represents both a huge challenge and [an] opportunity for us, especially during this crisis,” the company told Tech in Asia.
It added that capacity control and real-time inventory management have become even more important amid the pandemic, while most of the small and medium-sized suppliers don’t have the technology capability to address these issues. To help them, it launched Rezio.
What are its future plans? KKday plans to build out more functionalities and roll out Rezio in Asia. It’s also aiming to expand its team and operations in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia.
What is its funding history?
- Series B++ round (2019): US$11 million from Cool Japan Fund
- Series B+ round (2018): undisclosed amount led by Alibaba’s Entrepreneurs Fund and Line Ventures
- Series B round (2018): US$10 million led by HIS Group, with Mindworks Ventures returning to join in
- Series A+ round (2016): US$7 million led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and AppWorks, along with Mindworks Ventures, Cathay Venture, and Substance Capital (HK).
- Series A round (2016): US$4.5 million led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation by 91Capital
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