EchoVC, a seed and early stage venture capital firm, has invested in Nigeria's hostel booking platform, MyPadi, to accelerate expansion into more cities, schools and improve its products.

Founded in 2016, MyPadi has helped hundreds of students to find their perfect home away from home through its online portal.

Uche Ogboi of EchoVC, 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 organized 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,” he said.

MyPadi helps students to book hostels & find roommates online.

There are up to 4000 rooms listed on the platform, which cuts across 62 schools in Nigeria. 

Formerly Studacom, MyPadi helped hundreds of students to find their perfect home away from home.

Prior to MyPadi , the hostel discovery process was extremely rigorous given the shortage in supply of on-campus accommodation. 

Students spent nothing short of 3 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 24 hours from start to finish.