Treepz Global, a Nigeria-based vehicle-hailing app, has announced the takeover of Ugabus, an online bus ticketing company in Uganda.
As a result, effective December 1, Ugabus will be renamed Treepz Uganda, marking company’s first entry into the East African market.
Hakiza Ronald, the CEO Ugabus, made the announcement on Monday, 22 November 2021.
“On a day-to-day, it means better bus ticketing experience, reliable travel and a smoother customer experience. This service will now be known as travel treepz. It is important to know that you will continue to enjoy the Ugabus experience, but in an improved way,” he said.
“On top of inter-town bus tickets, TREEPZ Uganda will also offer a corporate travel service which will allow companies partner with us for bus hires and staff pick-ups/drop-offs,” he added.
Hakiza also said he will continue to lead the company’s Uganda operations and their entire staff is now a part of the Treepz family.
“Our head office will now be Toronto, Canada with Kampala becoming an operations centre for Treepz Global,” he said.
On his part, Onyeka Akumah, CEO and co-founder of Treepz, is quoted by TechCrunch as saying that the acquisition was funded with a recent $1.5 million raise.
“We’ll be able to service most of the major cities in Uganda, but the good thing about East Africa is they have very seamless borders between the countries, so it’s easy to move from Uganda to Rwanda, Uganda to Tanzania, Tanzania to Burundi, and so forth,” Akumah is quoted by TechCrunch as saying.
“The plan is to extend into Tanzania and Burundi first. Those are places we will pay attention to next year,” he added.