Lydia is a Peer-to-Peer mobile payment start-up that enables the user to get all their account information including loans, insurance, payment cards, gift cards etc. and the start-up has recently announced to raise additional funds worth USD 86 million in an extended Series B funding round led by the global venture capital firm, Accel (previously known as Accel Partners).
The Paris-based start-up has hit the record of being the first French financial technology start-up to close the largest funding round ever by raising a total of USD 131 million in its Series B round.
Lydia is an alternative, a made-for-you payment platform for all your accounts, that replaces top banking mobile applications with a better User Interface, an overall superior design and great features.
Founded back in 2013 by Cyril Chiche and Antoine Porte, Lydia was built with an intention to make payments easier. The platform is built to allow users to pay any amount to anyone using one single app for all your accounts. It leverages the mobile wallet system to make payments seamless and hassle-free for the user. The platform does not even require the user to carry ATM cards or Cheques, one app with an interactive user interface is all you need to get going.
Coming back to the funding, Lydia has raised a total amount of USD 159.5 million in over 6 financing rounds. The existing investors of the start-up include Paris-based Founders Future, China’s Tencent Holdings, XAnge- a France-based team of Venture Capital investors, NewAlpha Asset Management company and CNP Assurances. All these investors took part in the company’s latest Series B funding round.
Some features on the platform are developed in-house while some are leveraged by third-party providers.
When asked about the latest funding, the company mentions that this latest infusion of funds will be utilised in accelerating Lydia’s product line-up to match with the changing consumer preferences towards financial health capabilities and digital mobile banking.
In addition to this, the company also mentions to expand its presence geographically and its international footprints have been set with its launch in Portugal and it is expected to expand in other parts of Europe as well in 2021 as reported by coverager.com.
Amit Jhawar, Venture partner at Accel commented on its investment saying that Lydia has solved a real customer pain point by creating an elegant and effective solution which has resulted in 100% organic user growth. He further added that the company’s ability to build a network without buying users has always impressed him and he wanted to find a way to be a part of the next stage of their journey.
