Lydia began as a peer-to-peer payment app and progressively became the dominant mobile payment app in France. The app now offers virtual and physical Visa debit cards, shared sub-accounts, small loans (€100–€3,000), savings accounts and recently added stock and crypto trading via a partnership with Bitpanda. Trading supports fractional shares and 24/7 micro-investing, a feature positioned as a major growth opportunity. The company uses a freemium model with premium subscriptions to drive monetization as users adopt more products. Lydia reports 5.5 million users and says one-third of French people aged 18–35 have an account. It plans to hire 800 people over three years (160 in 2022) and aims for 10 million European customers by 2025. Lydia began as a peer-to-peer mobile payments app and has expanded into a broader financial super app offering virtual and plastic Visa debit cards, personal IBANs, account aggregation, and flexible sub-accounts. The app supports instant SEPA transfers, direct deposit, money pots, shared accounts, premium plans, and a credit line; the company has also partnered to expand credit offerings (notably with Younited Credit). Product work in 2020 included a full redesign, new premium tiers, card infrastructure migration, and alerts for account aggregation to drive monetization. Lydia is actively expanding geographically (starting with Portugal) while aiming to keep local IBANs and cards for better acceptance. The company reports more than 4 million users and says transactions have doubled year-over-year, and CEO Cyril Chiche has emphasized moving the business toward profitability. Management plans to test more financial products on the new platform, including credit, savings, and investment offerings. Lydia is a mobile payment app widely used in France that has expanded into a broader money‑management and financial marketplace. The product started as peer‑to‑peer payments and now offers multiple sub‑accounts, virtual and physical payment cards, shared accounts, and easy money pots. Through an in‑app marketplace users can access third‑party financial products such as micro‑loans up to €1,000, insurance, bank‑account sign‑up incentives, and utility or mobile switching services. The company emphasizes real‑time control of funds and aims to become a meta‑banking mobile hub rather than a traditional bank. Lydia has attracted roughly 3 million users, with 25% penetration among French 18–30 year olds, adds about 5,000 signups per day, and employs about 90 people. Future plans highlighted by management include expanding the marketplace of financial products and accelerating growth in foreign markets. Lydia started as a Venmo-style peer-to-peer payments service and has expanded to let users pay online, in stores via QR code, and on e-commerce sites using a phone-linked account. The product includes a connected plastic card, virtual cards that can be added to Apple Pay, instant free P2P transfers, and IBAN top-ups. Lydia processes around 1 million transactions per month, representing roughly €25 million in monthly volume, and has more than a million registered users. The company signs up about 2,000 new users per day and reports that transaction growth is outpacing user growth. Lydia has launched in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Portugal and plans further expansion into Germany, Austria and other European markets. The team is based around a main office in Paris and had about 40 employees at the time of the article, with hiring plans to reach roughly 60 by end of 2018 and 90 by end of 2019. Lydia is a French mobile app that enables fee-free peer-to-peer payments. The company added a customizable physical MasterCard that can be managed in-app, with instant transactions and controls to block/unblock online payments, foreign payments, ATM withdrawals and set payment limits. At the time of the article Lydia had 500,000 users in France and planned to expand beyond its home market. With the new funding, the company planned launches in the U.K., Germany and Spain during the first half of 2017 and set a target of reaching 3 million users within two years. The $7.8 million (€7 million) raise is intended to support its European expansion. Lydia faces competition from regional players such as Revolut and Cookies as it scales.

Total raised

$259M

Funding rounds

7

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Dec 2021