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Wakanow
Online travel company for booking flights, hotels, transfers & obtaining visa assistance
About Wakanow
Wakanow is Africa’s leading travel tech company, specializing in providing comprehensive travel solutions. The company offers a wide range of services including the cheapest available fares for flights, hotel reservations, airport pickups, visa assistance, and vacation packages. Wakanow serves a diverse clientele ranging from individual travelers to corporate clients, operating primarily within the African market but also catering to global travel needs. The business model revolves around partnering with various service providers to offer a broad selection of travel options, thereby earning revenue through commissions and service fees. Wakanow enables customers to research, plan, and pay for their trips conveniently, both locally and globally.
Source: Dealroom company dataAt a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2008
- Headquarters
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Employees
- 798
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 68.8/100
- Industry
- Travel
- Sub-industry
- Online Travel Agency, Booking & Search, Accommodation
- Sector
- eCommerce & Marketplaces, Travel & Tourism, Travel, Car Rental, Accommodation, Travel Booking, Flight Management, Online Booking
- Business model
- Marketplace & ecommerce
- Client focus
- b2c
- Investment activity
- 1 company, latest Oct 2025
- Capital deployed
- —
- Preferred round
- ACQUISITION
Latest news
Press, funding announcements and product moves mentioning Wakanow.
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GROWTH EQUITY VC✓Equity / VC | Dec 2018 | $40M | $280M | The Carlyle Group | ↗ |
| EARLY VCEquity / VC | Aug 2014 | $0 | — | Undisclosed | — |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Wakanow is 550K monthly website visits, down 5.2% over the last three months. Wakanow's team grew 0.8% over the past year.
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series B and later1 investor entered at this stage
The Carlyle Group
Other known investors1 additional known investor
- CCCarlyle Cardinal Ireland - CCI
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Wakanow on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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