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Popular online travel company, Wakanow.com Limited (Wakanow), is to get a $40m investment from American alternative asset management company, The Carlyle Group.
The new deal was announced in a statement jointly signed by the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow, Obinna Ekezie, and Catherine Armstrong of The Carlyle Group.
The equity funding will allow Wakanow expands its operations as a one-stop online booking portal for flights, hotels, holiday packages and other travel services.
Since 2009 when it opened shop in Nigeria, Wakanow has grown as a major player in the online hotel and flight booking business in West and East Africa. Wakanow has strong physical presence in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, UAE and the United Kingdom.
“We are excited to partner with Carlyle as we continue to grow and expand in Africa and beyond. Carlyle’s global footprint and scale as well as its extensive experience and network in the online travel sector will help us to further develop our offerings and broaden our customer base,” said Ekezie.
“Wakanow has experienced incredible growth since inception, disrupting the travel market and taking market share both online and offline. We believe that this strong growth trajectory will continue as Wakanow benefits from an expanding middle class across the continent in addition to increasing internet penetration and mobile connectivity, which is driving increased online traffic. We look forward to working with Wakanow’s management team to help them deliver on their vision for growth and expansion,” said Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, Idris Mohammed.
“We are happy to partner with Carlyle and we look forward to working with them to strengthen Wakanow’s market position, accelerate innovation, deepen its systems and processes to realise the vision of a truly world class online travel agency with African roots,” said Mayowa Ayodele, the Chief Investment Officer of Platform Capital, one of Wakanow’s lead investors.
The Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset manager with $212 billion of assets under management across 339 investment vehicles. Founded in 1987 in Washington, DC, Carlyle has grown into one of the world’s largest and most successful investment firms, with more than 1,625 professionals operating in 31 offices in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
