FunNow raises $5M to expand tours and activities in Southeast Asia and Japan

FunNow, a Taiwan-based instant booking app for entertainment and leisure activities, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund.

Additional investors include returning funder CDIB Capital and new investors Darwin Ventures and Accuvest.

FunNow launched in November 2015 and since then has amassed 3,000 vendors providing more than 20,000 activities and services that are instantly bookable by its 500,000 members.

The early growth was fueled by a $1.5 million pre-A funding in July 2017 that was used to build services in its home market of Taiwan and in Hong Kong and Okinawa.

This new funding will be used to expand capabilities in those markets and add new ones including Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Bali, Osaka and Tokyo.

FunNow CEO TK Chen says the app targets “spontaneous locals looking to enjoy hassle-free entertainment and leisure activities such as massage, bars or fun experiences in their home cities or simply want to have a short getaway to the neighboring cities without planning.” He says that differentiates it from activity platforms KKday and Klook that target tourists.

The company says its competitive advantage is its search engine that uses a patented algorithm to provide real-time availability.

“Using geolocation technology, in less than 0.1 seconds, customers will get a glance of all the available slots within their perimeter. Through a few clicks, a reservation is made,” FunNow says in a statement.

FunNow expects to reach $16 million in revenue in 2018, which is three times its revenue in 2017.