Unique: BuuPass acquires QuickBus, a bus ticketing platform, in a money and inventory deal

BuuPass, a Kenyan journey reserving platform backed by Founders Manufacturing facility Africa and FrontEnd Ventures, has acquired its Nigeria and South Africa-based competitor QuickBus. Each firms declined to share the transaction quantity for the money and inventory deal. 

QuickBus’s builders and product managers will be a part of BuuPass to facilitate integration processes, whereas head of operations in South Africa will be a part of BuuPass’s administration workforce. 

The acquisition will broaden BuuPass’s partnerships with banks and telcos that supply a number of providers, akin to API integration options. As an example, BuuPass partnered with the M-PESA app, a monetary tremendous app, to offer its reserving providers to round 10 million Kenyans who use the cellular cash app.

“Quickbus offers BuuPass entry to present integration with main distribution channels in Nigeria and South Africa, akin to Vodaphone’s VodaPay app in South Africa,” the startup stated.

BuuPass will then change QuickBus branding inside present integrations like VodaPay. Nigerian and South African customers can even discover BuuPass as their journey reserving choice throughout numerous platforms.

The acquisition combines two companies with totally different strengths. Buupass, which raised $1.3 million in 2023, is seeking to broaden into different African nations and can now have entry to South Africa and Nigeria. These new markets will push its energetic month-to-month customers to 650,000.

QuickBus, which first launched in Kenya in 2017, raised over $1 million in a 2020 seed spherical. New possession will see it broaden attention-grabbing merchandise and options like its Money Advance. 

Since launching in 2016, Buupass has offered over 6 million journey tickets and generated over $100 million in ticket gross sales. The platform “covers nationwide and cross-border routes in East and Southern Africa and has served over 16 million passengers,” the corporate stated.

The combination processes will entail rolling out further journey choices, akin to prepare and flight bookings, which have been restricted in BuuPass’s Kenyan market.

“Beginning at present, BuuPass customers can entry worldwide routes throughout 16 African nations, together with Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria, and Ghana. Main routes, akin to Johannesburg to Cape City and Durban to Capetown, may be discovered on the platform at present, with extra to be added by the tip of Q2,” BuuPass added.