NaijaTalkTalk- UPDATED: Wakanow May Be Getting Into The Online Bus Ticketing Space

After making great strides in the flight and hotel booking space, Africa’s leading online travel company, Wakanow is reportedly getting into the bus ticketing space in Nigeria with the acquisition of online bus ticketing start-up, Oya, Techloy has learnt.

The L5Lab-backed start-up provides online bus ticket services for about 20 interstate bus companies including Ifesinachi Transport, Chisco Transport and God is Good Motors, in a chaos transport industry that is gradually getting disrupted by leading players like Spark-backed, Bus.com.ng.

L5Lab’s founder, Chika Nwobi who had acquired a majority stake in the start-up back in 2013, has been reached for comment on the deal, but has yet to respond to my email.

Oya co-founders, Nnazilim Egbuonu and Obinna Ogbodo who both started the company as a final year project at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said in a statement toBNreport that they were excited that their two year old start-up has “now transformed into a multimillion dollar company”.

With increasing interest in Nigeria’s online industry especially from global startup builders such as Rocket Internet and institutional investors around the world, it is expected that the online booking space for flights, hotels, buses, car rentals, etc would continue to be an exciting spot to be in the coming years.

The online travel company has been rumoured to be working on its own branded airline that would offer travellers affordable flights to both local and international destinations. ATechloy source revealed this to me earlier this year, and although we’re yet to confirm this rumour, we’re not going to write it all off as mere speculation or conjecture.

Wakanow and L5Lab could not be reached for comment. We’ll be keeping an eye on this space and would bring you more information as we know it.

Update 1: 05/06/14 — Wakanow has denied the acquisition of Oya.com.ng. A letter to TechLoy sent by the company’s lawyers, The New Partners dated 5th of June, 2014 stated: “We wish to expressly state that our Client has not acquired Oya.com.ng and the statement attributed to its Managing Director/Chief Executive Office with respect to the alleged acquisition is false.”

Update 2: 05/06/14 — TechLoy has removed the statement earlier published that was attributed to Wakanow’s Managing Director with respect to the alleged acquisition in the statement allegedly made available to online publication, BNreport.

Update 3: 06/06/14 — A reliable source revealed to TechLoy that Wakanow has actually acquired Oya, although the company does not want the information public yet until later in the year.