38 | FORBES ASIA APRIL 2018
30 UNDER 30Eric Gnock Fah
COFOUNDER AND PRESIDENT
KLOOK TRAVEL
A travel enthusiast, Gnock Fah of Hong
Kong started Klook in 2014 as a Web
and mobile platform to book attractions,
tours, activities and other travel services
in Asia at exclusive rates. Ramping up
quickly, Klook has expanded to include
more than 150 global destinations. Last
year it raised $90 million from investors
including Sequoia Capital and Goldman
Sachs. “Our app and website now has
over 12 million visitors per month from
over 50 countries and regions looking
for travel activities,” says Gnock Fah,
who was featured on last year’s list.
Like Carousell’s Quek, Gnock Fah
says getting their backers to understand
Klook’s vision has been pivotal to con-
tinued success. “We’re thankful that our
investors are giving us the freedom toALUMS ON THE RISE
A look at how some of our previous list members are faring.
Siu Rui Quek
COFOUNDER AND CEO, CAROUSELL
Quek, in Singapore, made our irst Asia list in 2016, thanks to Carousell, an eBay-like
online marketplace for buying and selling new and secondhand goods in Southeast
Asia that he cofounded with Lucas Ngoo and Marcus Tan. Speaking to Forbes re-
cently, he says that they had “laid the foundations” at Carousell and are now focusing
on innovation.
“In the startup phase of our business, we were laser-focused on growth and our
mission to inspire the world to start selling,” he says. “We’ve been fortunate to have
investors that see the value we’re creating and have been willing to invest in grow-
ing this business with us.” And this backing—$40 million in a 2016 funding round
and more than $70 million in another last year—has given them conidence to keep
pushing boundaries. Quek says Carousell may soon start ofering a greater variety of
categories, including property and cars.
In the last quarter of 2017, Carousell reported 110 million listings—with 140
listings posted per minute—and 4 3 million items sold. It said users were spending as
much as 18 minutes on its app. Quek points to Carousell’s investment in artiicial-
intelligence-powered listings. “We see AI as the new frontier for the classiieds sector,
or classiieds 4.0, with its predictive and automated capabilities improving the overall
buying and selling experience.”
But he admits they’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to convincing
people across Southeast Asia to buy and sell online: “We’ve built some amazing com-
munities all across the region, a validation of the problem we’ve started to solve, but
now is when the real work starts.”