French mobile payments startup Lydia has raised EUR40 million in a Series B funding round led by Chinese giant Tencent and joined by Open CNP, XAnge and New Alpha.
Launched in 2013, the Lydia P2P payments service now has three million users and a 25% market share among French millenials. Like its American counterpart Venmo, the brand has even entered the lexicon as a verb.
Recently, the company has diversified, enabling users to get accounts, payment cards, loans, insurance and gift cards. Some of these products are developed inhouse, with other provided by third parties through a marketplace.
Cyril Ciche, CEO, Lydia, says: "With the new funding round and a partner like Tencent, who will help us save a lot of time and avoid costly mistakes in this scaling up phase, we have all the reasons to be very ambitious.
"We are now in a position to challenge the traditional retail banking distribution model with a mobile platform model similar to what we see in sectors like retail, music or travel."