Ozioma Ubabukoh
MyPadi.ng, a real estate start-up providing off-campus accommodation for higher institution students, has raised seed funding from EchoVC to provide more off-campus accommodation for Nigerian students.
Our correspondent gathered that this round of funding would be used to accelerate myPadi’s expansion into more cities, “serving more schools, growing the team and improving their product.”
myPadi’s hostel booking platform allows students to discover off-campus accommodation through its listings from verified landlords. The platform provides photographs, virtual tours, pricing, amenities and reviews.
The Nigeria Country Manager, EchoVC, Uche Ogboi, said, “We are very excited about our investment in myPadi and in a market that has been estimated to be worth $20bn per year. The inadequate supply of student hostels in universities across Africa has created a great need for off-campus student accommodation and myPadi provides an elegantly organised solution to this problem. We see myPadi as the future go-to platform for all student needs.
“We believe that the myPadi team, led by the founder, Joel Amawhe, is the right team to execute this vision. We wish them all the best and look forward to working together.”
In its online directory, myPadi stated that before now, the hostel discovery process was extremely rigorous, given the shortage in the supply of on-campus accommodation.
The firm said, “Students spent several weeks calling friends and acquaintances, walking long distances or having to rely on unverified roadside agents, who often demand large deposits and are sometimes fraudulent.
“Today, with myPadi, this process is streamlined, easy and takes less than one week from start to finish.”
Founded in 2016, myPadi, formerly Studacom.ng & HostelsVilla.com, was the pitch winner at the #StartupSouth2016 edition. It was also a part of Ventures Platform’s second acceleration programme where it received $20,000 initial funding.
myPadi was awarded best e-housing start-up of the year (2017) by the National Information Technology Development Agency, and represented Nigeria at the GITEX 2017 in Dubai and received $5,000 in funding, plus three months business advisory service from Accenture Nigeria, courtesy of the National Economic Summit, 2017.
The company has listed 5,000 vetted rooms for students in over 60 tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“It is good to see how far myPadi has come. We think that they are playing in an interesting market and we are excited for them as they reimagine the future of hostel booking for students.”
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source http://punchng.com/firms-raise-funds-to-drive-student-accommodation/
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