Treepz, one of Africa’s fastest-growing corporate travel startups, has officially launched in Canada, which is a major milestone in its global journey. With full support from the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, and in partnership with organisations like the World Trade Center’s TAP program by Black Entrepreneurship Alliance, and the Brampton Entrepreneurs program, this move is a proud moment not just for Treepz but for Nigerian startups and Africa as a whole.
From its humble beginnings in Nigeria in 2019, Treepz has grown into a Global Startup that operates in 25 cities across 5 countries — including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and now, entering North America through Canada. With over 6 million customers served to date, Treepz continues to reshape the way corporate and travel mobility work through smart, tech-driven solutions. With this Canadian launch, Treepz is proving that African startups can tackle global problems and scale successfully.
Why Canada?
In 2021, Treepz participated in the Techstars Toronto accelerator, where it met with the City of Brampton team at the time and its CEO, Onyeka Akumah, met virtually with Mayor Patrick Brown to discuss a future expansion of the company ince then, Treepz has gone on to attract several investors and venture capitalists from Canada to support its growth in other markets, including it’s expansion to Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya two years ago.
With more than 16.5 million Canadians commuting to work everyday according to Statistique Canada, while 38.7 million traveled out of Canada for holidays in 2024 alone, this fueled Treepz interest to enter into the North American market starting first with Canada.
The company has now received more support from several organisations in Canada to not just establish it’s Global Headquarters in Ontario Province of the country but also commence operations.
Treepz Canada’s first client partnership with the University of Toronto’s sponsored African Impact Initiative
To commence operations, Treepz annouced a 2-years partnership with the African Impact Initiative supported by the University of Toronto at it’s launch of Treepz Canada. This partnership will see Treepz provide corporate travel solutions to this group who will be traveling to 4 African countries every year from more than countries globally including Canada. Treepz will provide all flights, accomodation, experience and it’s trade-mark ground transportation service across South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda.
Mayor of Brampton Welcomes Treepz
Treepz chose to launch it’s Canada operations at the City Hall in Brampton and Mayor Patrick Brown warmly welcomed it’s founders, members of the board of directors at Treepz, and team members. He expressed his full support and excitement for what this launch means to him and Brampton, Canada.
According to Mayor Brown, “Treepz has brilliant founders, entrepreneurs and I will not be surprised if this becomes a global brand. 6 million users in it’s first 5 years in multiple countries? It’s purely impressive. It has a very good idea in what it is building. Corporate mobility is part of the global logistics conversation and they are at the heart of that conversation in Treepz.
Grateful they have launched and been part of our BHive program. It’s an exciting time for them and Brampton as a city will be cheering for the success of this company to ensure it becomes a global brand.
If you can handle traffic in Lagos and handle that mobility for staff there, you can handle traffic anywhere in the world. So, I am excited to say Treepz, welcome to Canada! Welcome to Brampton! Welcome home”.
Erica Henry-Jackman who is the City of Brampton’s Manager for Investment Attraction and International Relations also shared her excitement about Treepz launching in Canada. According to her, “we are truly excited and I am personally excited for personal reason. When we started the BHive Program in Canada, Treepz was our first Nigerian company and after COVID, you were part of our delegation. So its a bit of a homecoming moment.”
Onyeka Akumah, Founder & CEO of Treepz shared his excitement as well at the launch in Canada. In his words, “The launch of Treepz Canada is a strong positive statement of intent for not just our company but how we represent all African startups. We can truly build global acceptable and reputable brands right from the streets of Lagos and Treepz is just one more startup that proves this. We are proud Nigerians who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. So today, I celebrate my co-founders Johnny and Atums. I celebrate my board of directors, I celebrate my stakeholders and investors and most importantly, I celebrate my team that supports us. We are now a global brand directly serving customers in 2 continents including Africa and North America. But it’s still day one and we have approached this launch like the first day we launched on the 16th of September in 20219.
Thank you to the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown and his team including Garnett Theodore, Erica Henry-Jackman and Uche Okugo who supported us since 2021 leading up to this day. We are also grateful to the likes of Efosa and Osas Obano, who ensured we could secured our first contract with the University of Toronto’s sponsored African Impact Initiative. It’s been almost one year of work, but we are now live and from here on, we invite more corporates to chose Treepz as their corporate travel partner. The evidence of 6 million customers we’ve served for more than 5 years is proof that we are ready to serve you as well.”