Tourplus raises US$1m seed as founder pivots during travel standstill

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 AUGUST 2026 —

Tourplus Technology Sdn Bhd closed a US$1 million seed round last October while Malaysia’s inbound tourism market remained frozen, founder Rickson Goh said. By then the Kuala Lumpur-based travel tech startup had almost no revenue and its runway was short.

The money came as Rickson made the strategic call that international borders would stay shut for at least 24 months. With inbound travel off the table, he pivoted Tourplus to domestic digitalisation, government partnerships and non-travel income.

Last week Tourplus and Tourism Selangor launched Go Selangor, a mobile travel app that will go live in October 2021 under a 50:50 profit-share deal with the state agency. Tourism Selangor will endorse and recommend operators to Tourplus, which will run the app, handle commercial set-up and process payouts.

Go Selangor will be the official travel app for Selangor as the state doubles efforts to ready small suppliers for the rebound. Tourism Selangor will push SMEs to list packages, services and inventory on the platform, giving Tourplus access to operators that were previously out of reach.

“It helps more rural operators or ‘hidden gem providers’ that are not on main platforms like Kloop,” Goh said. “We get to add new inventory to our database while gearing for the post-pandemic rebound.”

The collaboration is the latest in a string of deals Goh closed after raising the seed capital. He used the downtime to build a pipeline of small travel suppliers and take them through Malaysia’s Digital Marketing Grant, part of the government’s Covid recovery programmes.

“Suppliers were eligible to receive up to a RM5,000 grant and we managed to get 200 companies approved from 800 submissions so far,” he said. The work kept his 20-strong team busy and improved cash flow.

Goh also turned to Parliament. He met relevant ministers to pitch Tourplus as a Technology Service Provider able to help government digitise micro-businesses. The TSP status unlocked grant applications and gave Tourplus credibility with suppliers.

While domestic travel slowly restarted, Goh kept one eye on China, the largest single source market for inbound tourists before the pandemic. In April he signed a collaboration with ChongQing China Youth Travel Service to tap the 3 million annual Chinese tourists Malaysia once hosted.

Even with the fresh capital, Rickson remains cautious. “Travel is still our primary business and even though we raised funds, it won’t last forever if the restrictions stay in place,” he said. “We need to keep innovating and I need to hire tech people, UI/UX designers and product people to help us scale.”

A separate partnership gives Tourplus access to 200,000 hotel rooms worldwide. Through an API integration with Nasdaq-listed Ctrip—the largest online travel agency in China—users of the Tourplus app can book rooms globally where Ctrip has partners.

“It is a very exclusive privilege to be given the trust of API integration with a company like Ctrip,” Goh said.