The French mobile financial services platform Lydia has raised $100 million in a Series C round, funding that values the company at north of $1 billion.
According to multiple published reports, the company will use the funding – led by existing investors Tencent and Accel, along with newcomers like Dragoneer – to expand beyond France and add 800 people to its staff by 2024.
CEO Cyril Chiche said that by 2025, he hopes to have 10 million customers in Europe who use Lydia as their primary account. “What we’re experiencing is the reinvention of the banking industry,” he said.
Read more: Lydia App Users Can Now Trade Crypto Assets on Bitpanda
Although Lydia began as a P2P payments app, it has since evolved to include offerings like loans and savings accounts. For example, customers can instantly borrow up to 3,000 euros or purchase insurance for their phones, and can get physical or virtual cards that run on the Visa network.
They also receive an offer of free credit when they open a bank account. Users can create multiple accounts, allowing them to separate money earmarked for different purposes or share accounts with other users.
Lydia has said it does not wish to replace banks; it only wants to create a meta banking app and transform it into a financial hub.
Read more: Tencent Leads $45M Funding Round for France P2P App Lydia
“We have an ambitious goal, which is turning Lydia into a mobile financial service app,” Chiche said in 2020.
Last month, Lydia teamed up with the Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda to give Lydia users access to trade digital assets. The partnership allows Lydia customers to invest in more than 170 crypto assets, as well as commission-free fractional stocks and precious metals.
Lydia’s last funding round was in 2020, when it raised $45 million in a Series B round led by Tencent.
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