To further pan-African expansion ambitions, Nigeria’s Plentywaka rebrands
Plentywaka is a Lagos-based bus-hailing service that lets commuters to schedule and pay for rides in real-time. It was founded in 2019 by Onyeka Akumah, Johnny Ena, John Shaibu, and Afolabi Oluseyi.
Over the previous year, the company has witnessed significant growth, completing almost 500,000 rides and creating a B2C logistics platform. Earlier this year, it was accepted into the Techstars Toronto accelerator program.
It received US$1.2 million in early investment last month and announced the purchase of Ghanaian company stabus as it continues its pan-African growth, prompting a makeover. Plentywaka will now be known as Treepz, a name the business believes better symbolizes the company’s ambition of becoming Africa’s greatest shared mobility platform.
Treepz has unveiled a new logo to go with the name change. Daily Treepz, Travel Treepz, and Corporate Treepz will be the new titles for the company’s key service offerings. For marketing and branding purposes, the company’s existing mission statement and “black and yellow” brand colors will be kept.
“This name change is a result of in-depth discussions with our stakeholders, partners and staff. After we discovered that the term “waka” can mean different things across Africa, which may be completely different from travel or movement, we decided to change the name from “Plentywaka” to “Treepz”, which is pronounced “trips”,” Akumah said.
Treepz plans to grow to six more African nations in the next two years, according to him, and the new name clearly expressed the startup’s objective to deliver safe, convenient, and enjoyable journeys across Africa.
