Plentywaka, a Nigerian mobility startup has announced it will now be known as Treepz as it seeks to align the company name with its Pan-African expansion plan.
Plentywaka was founded in 2019 by Onyeka Akumah, Johnny Ena, John Shaibu, and Afolabi Oluseyi to provides ride-sharing services to its users on-demand. The company has two primary offerings, Travelwaka ,for inter-state travel , and Dailywaka , for intra-state travel — via its app.
According to the startup, the change of name would take effect immediately as it better represents the company’s vision of building the largest shared mobility platform across Africa.
Onyeka Akumah, Treepz CEO said, “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 as ‘Trips.”
He added that the name Treepz embodies everything that happens on the road, traveling across cities, within cities and it gives a cool vibe to the experience.
He also explained that Treepz states the company’s mission to provide safe, convenient and comfortable trips across Africa with plans for an expansion to 6 countries in 2 years.
In line with the name change, the startup has unveiled a new logo. Although its core service offerings will remain the same but with new names: daily waka is now daily Treepz , travel waka is now travel Treepz and corporate Treepz .
According to Mr Akumah, already existing users won’t have to take any action as the new app will be automatically updated to the new Treepz experience in Africa.
Since its launch the company has added more routes in Lagos and expanded to other Nigerian states, and recently acquired Ghanas Stabus to kick start its pan-African expansion.
Last month, Plentywaka raised a $1.2 million seed round to scale its operations in Africa.
