Onyeka Akumah: The Journey of a Serial Disruptor

At only 37, Onyeka Akumah has been able to build a number of thriving businesses. The serial entrepreneur set out on his entrepreneurial journey with a keen interest in agriculture, real estate and transportation sectors.

Looking back, it’s easy to see the impact he has made in these sectors with his leading brands such as Farmcrowdy - an agritech company, Rent Small Small - a real estate firm, Plentywaka - a transportation startup and Crowdyvest - a fintech platform. Over the years, Onyeka has mastered the art of doing business in this part of the world, working for notable companies like GTBank, Deloitte, Jumia and Konga. Through his expertise in technology and marketing, Onyeka is one of those entrepreneurs bringing Africa into the international business discourse through his endeavours.

He currently focuses the bulk of attention on building Nigeria’s foremost shared mobility platform Plentywaka as CEO whilst providing guidance to his other businesses.

Onyeka has received several awards - African Leadership Persons of the Year 2020, The Top 50 African Disruptors 2020 by The Africa Report, 50 African Innovators to Watch by Global Shakers, Vanguard’s Top 10 Nigerian CEOs Under 40 Years 2020, and a lot more.

Business Elites Africa caught up with Onyeka on his journey so far in the transportation ecosystem in Africa, among other issues.

What’s it like being a serial entrepreneur?

I didn’t cut out to say ‘hey I want to be a serial entrepreneur’. For me, I wanted to create an impact in three sectors - agriculture, real estate and transportation. I kept on looking for how to use technology in those three sectors. My efforts turned out to become successful businesses, employing a lot of people and I’m happy about that. For me, It was more important to impact people’s lives. Farmcrowdy was the first. It wasn’t my first startup but in focusing on the three sectors I was excited about, it was. We made a tremendous impact with the platform. We have close to half a million farmers on our network today that we are providing different kinds of value to, helping them boost their work as well as help us facilitate the production of food in the country.

Then there was Crowdyvest, which was almost like an accidental startup. I wasn’t focused on building a fintech startup, but we found that we could crowdfund beyond agriculture so we created a new business for crowdfunding and that was Crowdyvest. We’ve successfully exited Crowdyvest, it’s self-sustaining and turning into a digital bank. We’re excited about what the new owners are doing with that business.

What I did with Rent Small Small is identify another opportunity in getting people to pay rent on a monthly basis. I co-founded that startup with Tunde Balogun who is doing an excellent job there. I pretty much just function at the board level and help with some strategic decisions, Tunde runs the company which he’s taking to another level. Over 500 people have used Rent Small Small to pay rent on a monthly basis across Lagos and other states in Nigeria.

I now spend almost a hundred per cent of my time on Plentywaka. As a serial entrepreneur and Plentywaka being the largest shared mobility startup in Nigeria, we’re just getting people to move in a safer, affordable and more comfortable manner within the city and across cities in Nigeria. And with a plan to do this across Africa.

I didn’t set out to say I want to be a serial entrepreneur, I just wanted to create impact in those sectors and it landed me big businesses.

Give us a picture of your early days at Plentywaka?

When we started Plantywaka we took a path that many people thought was going to be tough to go, and that was getting people to move with buses in a more effective manner. People felt with all the regulation and population involved in public transport it was going to be a tough journey for us. I think the success we’ve had is not just credited to me, but my co-founders Johnny Enagwolor has done a lot with the regulation for Plentywaka, Oluseyi Afolabi with product development and John Shaibu with customer engagement. So it’s the four of us joining all might to make it what it is.

We had to take a loan initially to start out with getting the first set of buses. We’ve translated that into a contract with our drivers. We went through that phase where everybody dealt with the pandemic in 2020 when we had to shut down our service for about 3 months. We hadn’t raised any money, otherwise. Initially, we were pretty much on a rocket ship, in six months we got over a hundred thousand people riding on our platform. Then the pandemic happened. Coming out of that to start back up, we quickly had to raise some funds. So we secured $300 thousand last year to sustain the business. One lucky break we had was when we got into Techstars this year. We began to get attention from investors and right now are in the process of closing out a new round that we’ll announce shortly. We’re now building the largest shared mobility startup in Nigeria. Rather than having one driver move one passenger as you have with other mobility platforms, one driver will now move 14 or more passengers. People can now open extra seats in their vehicles to move people from one bus stop to another, and become what we refer to as ‘Heroes’ on Plentywaka. From that perspective, we are now seeing a lot of traction.

What are some of the ways you’ll recommend for early-stage startup founders to source funding?

Anytime I have the opportunity to speak with early entrepreneurs, I keep repeating this, ‘investors are looking to invest in a company that is scaling, one that has potential and huge market appeal’. But before you can get them to invest millions of dollars you need traction. So what I advise every entrepreneur to do is first, in designing your business model, you must find a way of making money from day one or at least identify where you’re getting your margins from whatever value you’re providing for your customers.

“You need to pay attention to the team because investors at that early stage are investing in the team.”

People are excited about Plentywaka because they are paying less than they would have paid on other ride-hailing platforms. The drivers or heroes like we call them are earning more, 90% of the ticket as against the 70% or 75% on other platforms. So I think that’s what is making people really excited and we’re just getting started. We’ve not even scratched the surface in the public transportation space not just in Nigeria, in East Africa, West Africa, and across the continent. And two, identify the right people on your team. You need people on your team that possess complementary skills. For instance, say I’m strong in marketing. I need somebody who’s strong with engagement regulators, technology or customer engagement. We combined our different skill sets at Plentywaka to make the business successful.

Also, you need a team that has history. The least amount of time I knew all the co-founders in Plentywaka was five years. So it wasn’t an idea that brought us together, we knew each other before then. You need to pay attention to the team because investors at that early stage are investing in the team. The idea may be fantastic, but there won’t be so much for them to see at that point, apart from the potential of the team executing it. For us, the traction we had in the first six months before the pandemic was what allowed us to show that we had potential in Plentywaka. When the lockdown was eased we were able to present good numbers to investors and able to attract some funding into our coffers.

When you get funding, at least the first set of funding, do not change the model. Stay on what has made you raise that funding and turn it into a sustainable traction. And

then gradually you start scaling and tweaking your model until you have something that is self-sustaining.

Tell us about Travelwaka - the interstate travel network of Plentywaka?

‘Waka’ means movement. It goes beyond moving people from bus stop to bus stop. We created three types of waka, Dailywaka - moving within cities, Travelwaka - moving from one state to the other, and then there’s corporate waka - a bus hiring solution. With Travelwaka, we’re getting bus operators to sign up on our platform and use our technology to get customers. The likes of GUO, Libra Motors, ABC Transport, can now list their inventory on our platform. Using our app, people can book tickets and make payments without having to queue at the bus parks. We started with Libra Motors bringing about 200 of the buses to our platform, GUO has done the same with 200 buses.

Also, smaller players are using Plentywaka as an inventory management system, so they no longer serve paper tickets, but rather, digital tickets to their customers. Travelwaka is a major aggregator for interstate buses.

What would you say was your worst day?

I think my worst day would be when we started Farmcrowdy and I found out that one of my co-founders was going to leave. We had thought we were going to be depending on his agriculture perspective to run the business. I came from a technology and marketing background and was trying to create a solution in the agriculture space. We could have literally shut down the business. It was a case where I didn’t have anyone on the team that had that expertise. But we had to roll our sleeves. Tope Omotolani who is now the CEO at Crowdyvest, at that time, was leading operations and had to get into the farm. I and all the other tech people literally had to get into the farms. That was a shocking moment in our business and I think was one of the worst moments we had in my own entrepreneurial journey.

Another was when we ran out of cash in my previous startup and had to shut it down. We had to look at all the employees and say to them we were out of money. Lucky for us, we were able to exit the business to a bigger media house. All the good hands kept their jobs and started earning higher. Generally, there are bad days but we turn them into goods days as much as we can.

What’s your favourite part of being an entrepreneur?

It’s getting to do two things. One is having to conceive an idea, put it on paper, very quickly name the idea, create something out of it, and there’s value for people. And then all of the sudden people say, ‘I actually didn’t know he could have an idea that would solve this problem’. I think that’s exciting.

The second thing is finding solutions that create jobs for people. So you’re seeing the impact and at the same time, you’re creating opportunities for people to earn. And I’m quite excited about being able to do that with all my businesses.

How do you relieve stress?

I do my best to work out. I play football. I’m a number 9 or 21, a striker really. Because I want to play well on the pitch, I have to work out and that helps me relieve stress. When I get really burnt out in the office I can take it out on the pitch by just shouting ‘pass the ball!’ The venom I’m exhaling by howling ‘pass the ball’ may be coming from the office where someone didn’t ‘pass the ball’. I also find time to rest. If I don’t sleep 6 hours-30 minutes to 7 hours every day, it affects my productivity towards the later part of the day. I like to fire up all cylinders at least between 8 in the morning and 6 in the evening.

I turn a lot of things into a sport, I’m quite competitive, and that continues to spark my energy. I want to be the best in what I do. I want to be at the top. So that fires me up. When I get tired, I can always look at other people who are champions in their field and how they continue to push themselves. And I push myself and pace myself, so I don’t burn out. I rest when I need to. Sometimes I travel to get new ideas, to relax and see things from a new perspective. I think all of this helps me and keeps me fired up.