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By Juliet Umeh

Toronto-headquartered shared mobility startup, Plentywaka, known for providing hassle-free shared rides on-demand, today said it is making a significant shift in its business as it changes its name to Treepz.

The company said the name change which is effective as of now presents an opportunity for it to align with its Pan-African expansion plan.

CEO of Treepz, Onyeka Akumah said it also better represents the vision of the company which is to build the largest shared mobility platform across Africa.

He noted that after recently securing $1.2 million in seed funding and acquiring Status, one of Ghana’s leading mobility start-ups, the company is now solely focused on expanding across Africa and harnessing the exciting opportunities in the continent.

He also explained that as part of the name change, it has released a new company logo while its core service offerings will remain the same but with new names as Daily Treepz, Travel Treepz, and Corporate Treepz. He also noted that its existing mission statement and “black & yellow” brand colours will also be retained for marketing and branding purposes.

Akumah 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’.

“The new name boldly states our mission to provide safe, convenient and comfortable trips across Africa with plans for our expansion to six countries in two years on the continent.”

In addition, the CEO of Treepz said the company had been looking for a globally acceptable name for the last six months to use in creating the right kind of positive emotions around bus trips on the African continent.

He said: “The name Treepz embodies everything that happens on the road, travelling across cities, within cities and it gives a cool vibe to the experience.”

However, Akumah explained that already existing users won’t have to take any action as the new app will automatically force an update to the new Treepz experience in Africa.