Treepz, Nigerian-owned, Toronto-based shared mobility company, continues to further its footprints across Africa with acquisition of Uganda’s Ugabus.
The 100% takeover is in a bid to digitize the public transportation system and provide safer, reliable and comfortable commute options across Africa.
Speaking on the acquisition deal, the CEO and Co-founder of Treepz, Onyeka Akumah said: “Everyone at Treepz is excited to welcome the team at Ugabus to the Treepz Family. This has been in the works for some time, along with our deal that happened in Ghana a few months ago, and so, we are really happy about closing the deal successfully.
East Africa is an exciting target for Treepz and from Uganda, we would work with this new team led by Hakiza in Uganda to explore our growth plans across the neighbouring countries as we aim towards building the largest shared mobility platform in sub-Saharan Africa.”
The Treepz all in one app allows passengers to search, compare and book rides within cities and from one city to the other, conveniently from the comfort of their homes.
Ugabus’s indigenous intercity-focused technology therefore complements Treepz’ progressive model to bring on-demand public transportation and shared mobility to a new terrain in Africa, including mobile money technology.
“We care a lot about how people move from one city to another, and we did our best to build the most reliable bus booking app in Uganda. Now we’re joining the TREEPZ family to accomplish a bigger vision-one that we think we can better achieve with TREEPZ.
“We have known and respected the exploits of the founding team led by Onyeka Akumah and today, we are very happy that we would be pioneering the business growth of Treepz in East Africa starting with Uganda.” said CEO and Founder Ugabus, Ronald Hakiza.
Treepz was founded in 2019 and currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana. It is simply a platform that powers road transportation systems using technology. Treepz operates a digital platform allowing passengers to book daily rides along fixed routes within Lagos and Accra.
They also serve as an aggregator for over 12 bus travel companies including the likes of GUO, Efex Executive, Libra Motors, ABC Transport who commute customers on Treepz across 21 cities in Nigeria in the last 6-months since launching this product.
Transport operators can now make better use of their bus systems by replacing manual servicing and ticketing with digitalized offerings and services from Treepz.
Ugabus started in 2016 and currently has 70% of all bus operators in the East African country on its platform with a mobile money technology for easy payments.
The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the 100% acquisition will see Treepz impressively extend its geographic footprint in East Africa, given that Ugabus operates in all cities in Uganda.
Ugabus will now be renamed as Treepz Uganda and will begin operations on the 1st of December 2021 with the support of the Ugandan Government expected that day. Also, Ronald Hakiza who was the CEO of Ugabus will now become the Country Manager for Treepz Uganda and will be bringing on board his team to support the business growth plans.
