Senegalese startup Teranga Solutions, a mobile and cloud-based platform for hospitality firms, has been acquired by European hotel booking company HotelOnline to create a travel-tech industry leader in global frontier markets.
Formed in 2017 via a merger, HotelOnline has operations in Norway, Poland, Senegal, Kenya and Nigeria, with commercial presence in Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Pakistan.
Teranga was founded by brothers Moustapha Ndoye and his brother Alioune Ndoye, and featured at DEMO Africa in 2013. Early this year the startup was contracted by Destination Senegal, the country’s national tourism agency, to roll out its systems in more than 800 hotels across the country.
It aims to replicate this model across the continent, and will now do so with HotelOnline, with the companies saying their systems and business models were complementary and the new entity would provide a new cloud-based ecosystem platform for independent hotels.
“By joining forces we are able to provide a complete solution specifically designed for hotels in frontier markets. The global frontier markets comprise majority of the world’s hotels. But these hotels are yet to catch up with digitisation of their operations and markets hence they are the low-hanging fruits,” the companies said.
Eric Osiakwan, managing partner of Chanzo Capital and an investor in Teranga Solutions, will join the board of HotelOnline. He said the merger would give the company the clout to conquer the hospitality industry in global frontier markets.
“I am proud to be part of this amazing global team combining Africa and European expertise and experience considering the tremendous growth opportunities of the merged company,” he said.
