Mark Essien’s new startup fixes what journey reserving missed

Mark Essien first encountered the issue of enterprise journey in 2016, almost a decade earlier than founding an organization to handle it. On the time, he was centered on Motels.ng, the net lodge reserving platform he launched in 2012. 

To Essien, retail bookings had been easy: a buyer looked for a room and paid to order it.  Enterprise journey, nevertheless, was much more complicated.  

Giant shoppers regularly complained about inner approvals and compliance bottlenecks that went past easy reserving logistics, a problem Essien initially interpreted narrowly. 

It might take years of repeated conversations with massive company shoppers earlier than the sample turned plain.

“They wanted a extra tailored interface, or one thing that works higher for the precise issues that they had been having,” he informed TechCabal in an interview. “So, not simply the reserving platform, however one thing that works inside their very own constraints, which is that they are usually very massive and have a whole lot of approval processes.”

Thoseinsights led to TripDesk, Essien’s AI-driven enterprise journey platform, based in 2025. The platform is designed for giant firms in sectors akin to banking, telecommunications, mining, or fast-moving client items (FMCG).

TripDesk is greater than journey

Company journey is a major and recurring expense for multinational firms. In response to the International Enterprise Journey Affiliation (GBTA), enterprise journey spending within the Center East & Africa recovered to 111% of the 2019 stage in 2025, whereas world spending was projected to succeed in $1.57 trillion.

Whereas journey is embedded in massive firms, reserving a lodge is straightforward in contrast with navigating inner approval processes. 

Earlier than a visit is confirmed,  requests typically go by way of a number of layers of inner approvals, together with line managers, division heads,  finance groups, and typically compliance officers. Essien believes these inner journey insurance policies are often scattered throughout PDFs and Human Sources manuals reasonably than centralised.

“When you have got a several-level approval course of, the individual on the high isn’t actually conscious of each single factor happening,” he mentioned, explaining that their choice could also be based mostly on the choice of one of many line managers.

In such firms, choosing a lodge room is only one step in an extended administrative course of –  the workflow  TripDesk is designed to streamline.

TripDesk is an approval system constructed particularly for company journey. Every firm maintains its personal TripDesk ecosystem, with worker roles, departments, and journey insurance policies absolutely configured. 

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To provoke a journey request, workers enter particulars akin to vacation spot, period, estimated prices, and allowances for meals and transportation. 

The system then routes the request routinely by way of the suitable approval chain based mostly on the corporate’s inner construction. Managers obtain the request through e mail or on their  TripDesk dashboard, together with a abstract of whether or not it falls inside coverage limits. 

TripDesk acts as a compliance layer,  cross-referencing requests towards firm insurance policies and potential violations earlier than approval. 

Essien emphasised that the system reduces blind spots in massive organisations the place info is usually fragmented. “AI goes by way of all these completely different [policy] paperwork, places all of them collectively, after which offers a abstract,” he mentioned.

As soon as permitted, firms can select whether or not TripDesk solely manages the approval course of or additionally goes on to finish bookings by way of companions, akin to  Motels.ng in Nigeria and different suppliers in several nations.

Constructing for enterprise shoppers

TripDesk generates income by way of platform charges and booking-related prices. Corporations pay upfront to entry and deploy the approval system throughout their organisation. 

When TripDesk completes bookings for lodges, automobile leases, or different service charges, it additionally earns fee.  When  TripDesk completes bookings for lodges, automobile leases, or different companies, it collects service charges, and it additionally earns commissions when bookings are fulfilled by way of associate platforms. 

Regardless of getting into a market typically assumed to require high-volume scale, TripDesk’s progress has been concentrated. The startup presently serves 30 enterprise shoppers, producing over $2.3 million in income inside 4 months of launch. 

“The businesses are actually massive,” Essien mentioned. TripDesk doesn’t goal small companies or startups. Its typical shopper has no less than 1,000 workers and sometimes operates throughout a number of nations, which shapes the startup’s aggressive setting. 

Essien acknowledges conventional company journey companies and world platforms like Wakanow and SAP Concur, however argues that the majority rivals deal with solely fragments of the approval workflow reasonably than the complete course of. 

Profitable enterprise shoppers requires navigating complicated decision-making buildings. Many stakeholders are resistant to alter, significantly when inner processes are concerned. 

“We have now to hand-hold them and clarify how this course of goes to make issues higher,” he added. 

TripDesk raised a modest, undisclosed seed spherical primarily meant to cowl operational bills. 

“It wasn’t a big seed spherical. It was simply sufficient to cowl the primary stage,” he mentioned. 

Now worthwhile, TripDesk isn’t actively in search of enterprise capital. “We’re below no stress to fundraise. We’re rising effectively, and now we have excellent margins in comparison with our prices,” Essien mentioned. 

Over the following few years, Essien plans to deepen TripDesk’s presence amongst massive enterprises throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. For now, growth is tied to present shoppers that function in a number of nations.