Our Correspondent
Nigerian firms are making more offshore investment especially in the West Africa sub region.
The latest is the announcement on Monday, by Ride-hailing company, Plentywaka, that it has fully acquired Stabus, one of Ghana’s leading mobility startups to expand its operations in Africa.
Plentywaka’s acquisition of Stabus comes in the wake of announcing its seed round of $1.2 million, after successfully ending the Techstars Toronto Accelerator Programme in July 2021.
The Xchange, a Toronto-based fund, led the seed round while Techstars followed on its previous investment in Plentywaka to participate in the funding round.
Onyeka Akumah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Plentywaka, in a statement in Lagos said that acquisition of Stabus affirmed the commitment of plentywaka to grow and build the largest shared mobility startup in Africa.
He said that the such expansion philosophy was targeting one country at a time.
“In addition to our work in Ghana, we are also happy about the progress we’ve made in Nigeria to scale our `Dailywaka’ service that provides bus-stop to bus-stop transportation service for thousands of commuters.
“Stabus’ Co-Founder, Isidore Kpotufe, would become the Country Manager of Plentywaka Ghana and would be joined by the current team of Stabus.
“Today, we have moved close to half a million people.
“That’s a credit to the effort of my team, our heroes (a term used to describe Plentywaka drivers), and our investors who continue to believe and support our growth with their investments.
“With our Travelwaka service, we have been able to cater for interstate travelers across 21 cities in Nigeria; we are looking to expanding to more cities as new bus partners sign up with us,” he said.
Founder and Managing Partner of The Xchange, Todd Finch, said that the organisation was on a mission to fuel purpose-driven founders with the capital and resources they need to realise their world-changing potential.