E-hailing startup, Plentywaka, has announced a partnership with Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) to enable its expansion drive across the southern part of Nigeria.
The additional vehicles to its fleets from Innoson will allow it to extend its bus-hailing services in the newly-added states without jeopardising its operations in the states it currently services.
The collaboration is a first-of-its-kind for both companies and will provide Plentywaka with more vehicles to operate in its target next cities in the South-east and South-South regions of Nigeria.
Recall that the bus-hailing startup announced it will be launching in some cities within the South-east and South-South Nigeria in Q4 2020 beginning with Delta State.
Launched in September 2019, Plentywaka completed its first 100,000 rides in its first six months of operation in March. To commemorate its first year in the transportation sector, the startup’s founders spoke with TechNext’s about its plans for the future and the challenges since the business started.
Similar to the number of rides it completed in its first 6 months, it completed an additional 100,000 rides in the next 6 months, which brings the total number of trips completed in its first year to about 200,000.
Its e-hailing app through which passengers order rides also had 40,000 downloads in its first year.
Just recently, Plentywaka announced a $300,000 pre-seed funding which was led by Microtraction, EMFATO and Niche Capital. The funding is the first raised by the startup since it launched and was targeted at improving its mapping technology. With the funding, it also expanded into Abuja and added five new routes in the federal capital territory starting with Lugbe.
With COVID-19 grounding its operations to a halt after the country went into lockdown in March, the company launched two additional pivots in tune with the new realities. First is its logistics service which provides same-day delivery for packages and the next is its staff bus solutions.
According to Onyeka Akumah, “We know what our people want and we know what they deserve – a safer, more comfortable and efficient means of transport and as the traction in our first-year shows, we have the technology to make this a reality.”
“With IVM on board, we’re breaking into new territory so riders in the South-eastern states are not left behind”, he added.
As its founders said on its first-year anniversary, Plentywaka is on track to fulfilling more trips and expanding into more states in Nigeria.
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