TripDesk has crossed $2.3 million in revenue within four months of launching publicly, according to figures shared by the company. It also reached profitability in its second month, a rare timeline in a region where most venture-backed startups run at a loss for years. The startup was founded by Mark Essien, the software engineer behind Hotels.ng, one of Nigeria’s earliest online travel platforms. This time, Essien is not building for consumers. TripDesk is focused on large organisations in banking, telecommunications, mining, and FMCG, where travel approvals, budgeting, and reconciliation are still heavily manual. According to the company, the $2.3 million figure was reached roughly 120 days after launch. If sustained, that pace implies an annualised run rate above $6 million within its first year. The company attributes its early break-even point to enterprise contracts that bring predictable revenue, rather than the usage-driven pricing common in consumer SaaS. TripDesk also confirmed it has closed a seed round structured as a mix of debt and equity. The company says it has already begun servicing its debt, a signal that revenue is stable enough to support financing obligations rather than growth being fuelled by burn. Early profitability is uncommon in SaaS, where founders are often pushed to trade margins for growth. In Africa, the calculus is different. Capital is thinner, timelines are shorter, and investors increasingly want proof that revenue can stand on its own. Break-even, especially this early, signals discipline more than ambition. Enterprise SaaS makes that possible. Contracts are larger, margins are steadier, and usage is tied to operations rather than discretion. If TripDesk’s numbers hold, it places the company closer to infrastructure software than to the consumer-facing travel startups that typically burn cash while chasing volume. That positioning fits the problem it’s tackling. Corporate travel across Africa is still handled through a patchwork of emails, WhatsApp threads, spreadsheets, and paper forms. For large organisations, especially banks and telcos, that fragmentation slows approvals, weakens oversight, and creates reconciliation gaps. Essien argues the challenge goes deeper than inefficiency. “The complexity of an individual travel case is often five times more complex in Africa than in the West,” he said. “We created a solution that addresses logistics, financing, and complex approvals directly.” Trips often span multiple cities, change at short notice, and involve security or compliance constraints. Global travel tools, built for simpler routes and flatter approval structures, tend to break under that weight. TripDesk’s system is organised around approvals rather than bookings. Procurement, HR, and finance teams manage travel through a shared dashboard where requests move through defined layers, from managers to financial controllers. Executives can approve directly from email. Budgets are set by team, department, or executive tier. The product also accounts for what happens after a trip begins. Transport, accommodation, or security costs often shift on the ground. TripDesk allows those changes to be logged and reconciled in real time, limiting disputes once staff return. Policy enforcement is embedded in the workflow. Executive travel can be restricted to pre-approved hotels. Different teams can operate under different spending rules. For IT departments, the platform is designed to slot into existing systems, with single sign-on, role-based access, and encryption built in. “Our clients are extremely happy with the solution, and we are rapidly expanding even within organisations we have already signed,” Essien said. That traction aligns with a broader shift in African software funding. Over the past two years, investor interest has tilted toward tools tied to procurement, payments, logistics, and compliance—products with predictable revenue and operational lock-in. If TripDesk sustains its pace, it fits squarely into that trend. Its decision to build from Akwa Ibom, outside Nigeria’s usual startup hubs, also reflects how enterprise software on the continent is being shaped less by location and more by access to customers. For Essien, the pattern is familiar. Hotels.ng simplified consumer travel bookings when the system was fragmented. TripDesk is attempting a similar reset, this time inside corporate back offices, where approvals, money, and movement collide every day.
