Lagos and Toronto-based mobility startup Plentywaka has actually raised a $1.2 million seed round to scale its operations on the back of leaving the Techstars Toronto accelerator program last month.
Canadian-based VC firm The Xchange led the round, shock and sosv Ventures took part, while Techstars Toronto made a follow-on financial investment. Nigerian companies Argentil Capital Partners and ODBA & & Co Ventures participated in the seed round, together with some angel financiers from Canada, other parts of Africa, and the U.S.
In March, when TechCrunch covered Plentywaka, CEO Onyeka Akumah said the two-year-old business considered both worldwide and regional expansion. There hasn’t been much advancement on the latter except that the business set up its head office in Canada. , for the former, it’s in the type of an acquisition. The company says it has fully acquired Ghanaian mobility start-up Stabus howeverdeclined to comment on the acquisition price.
Plentywaka is mainly a bus-booking platform but, per its site, has over 900 cars varying from cars and trucks to vans to buses. The company offers intrastate travel (by means of its Dailywaka offering) and interstate travel (via its Travelwaka offering) for its users by means of a mobile application. Considering that going reside in September 2019, Plentywaka says it has acquired over 80,000 users while completing up to half a million trips.
Stabus, on the other hand, commenced operations in Ghana a month after Plentywaka’s launch. Its co-founder and CEO, Isidore Kpotufe, shared that the start-up has given that moved over 100,000 individuals within the country’s capital city Accra using different cars.
The Plentywaka and Stabus executives Akumah tells TechCrunch that prior to talks on an acquisition began, he and Kpotufe kept in touch regularly on a personal and business level since they released their respective companies twoyears back.
In April this year, Isidore, captivated by the pace at which Plentywaka was scaling, asked Akumah if his business had strategies to scale to Ghana. The Plentywaka CEO answered in the affirmative, exposing a timeline edging towards completion of the year. That indicated competitors, but the duo believed the better result for both companies was to combine.
“Isidore is someone I’ve known for going to two years now. And I have actually seen what he has made with Stabus and I understand precisely how they run. It was an easy yes for us to do this,” Akumah stated to TechCrunch.
The complexities of what structure to use came up; run with the Stabus brand name or change it. Eventually, they settled for the latter, renaming the gotten 12,000-user strong company to Plentywaka Ghana. A few of Stabus’ (now Plentywaka Ghana) customers include multinationals like MTN and GB Foods. Meanwhile, Kpotufe ends up being Country Supervisor of the new business.
“Plentywaka’s acquisition of Stabus is a firm statement about our dedication to grow and construct the biggest shared movement start-up in Africa, one nation at a time. Isidore is a fantastic entrepreneur and we are excited about having him and his team execute our plans for the Ghanaian market,” Akumah stated in a declaration.
In Nigeria, the company accommodates tourists throughout 21 cities. When Plentywaka Ghana goes live on September 16, tourists in Accra will begin to utilize the service. And the next plan after Accra is to duplicate the growth in six other African nations within 24 months. Akumah also pointed out that Plentywaka is raising its Series A to increase these expansion efforts.
“We are extremely excited by our investment in Plentywaka. Techstars is a big believer in the future of Africa and a proud supporter of African entrepreneurs. Onyeka is a two-time Techstars founder which deepens this relationship further,” handling director of Techstars Sunil Sharma stated in a statement.
Speaking on the seed round, managing partner at lead investor The Xchange, Todd Finch stated, “The Xchange is on an objective to sustain purpose-driven founders with the capital and resources they need to recognize the world-changing potential of their ideas. Given Onyeka’s tested performance history, his team’s undeniable thirst for making an impact, and Plentywaka’s excellent growth, we understood this was an opportunity we wished to purchase.”
Article curated by RJ Shara from Source. RJ Shara is a Bay Area Radio Host (Radio Jockey) who talks about the startup ecosystem – entrepreneurs, investments, policies and more on her show The Silicon Dreams. The show streams on Radio Zindagi 1170AM on Mondays from 3.30 PM to 4 PM.
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