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Hotels.ng, Nigeria’s largest hotel booking website, has secured an investment of $1.2 million from international investors, EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund, a seed-stage technology fund, and Omidyar Network, the investment vehicle of eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. The funding round follows on from the company’s 2013 seed investment of $225,000 from Lagos-based Spark.ng. Spearheading Africa’s e-commerce revolution, Hotels.ng has built its hotel network to cover 7,000+ hotels in 21 regions across Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country. The team of 34 has overseen one million+ hotel searches and ended 2014 with an operating profit. Having closed on this investment round, the company is now in a position to invest further in its technology capacity and look to expand in Ghana and French West Africa. Located in Yaba, Lagos, Hotels.ng provides safe, secure online booking for both tourist and business travellers. It provides detailed information on over 7,000 hotels, including images, price per night, availability, hotel amenities, location as well as a comprehensive user review and rating system. It has a safe and secure online payment portal, but also allows customers to pay on arrival. All hotels on the site have been vetted by Hotels.ng staff to ensure they are clean, safe and of a good standard. Mark Essien, CEO, Hotels.ng said: “We’ve spent three years travelling extensively across Nigeria, meeting with and speaking to hoteliers, guest house owners and travelers alike. Using this intelligence, we have built a platform centered on what works for them; user and product are core to every decision we make. Our mission was to ‘build local’ as a springboard for international expansion and this has resulted in really encouraging traffic and conversion figures so far. This new investment gives us the confidence and foundation on which to build out our vision for Nigeria’s e-tourism market”. For further information or for interviews with Mark Essien, CEO of Hotels.ng, contact Justin Irabor of Hotels.ng – justin@hotels.ng

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Photo Credit: OneDot Photography

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This article was first published on 26th May 2015

ejura

Ejura Salihu is an Anatomist, Writer and Editor. She is currently the Editor-in-chief for Connect Nigeria. You can contact her via email: ejurasalihu24@gmail.com or follow her on twitter @icyquin_msc