A new startup is taking aim at PayPal. This time, it’s French startup Lydia, which recently raised a $16.1 million round (€13 million).
According to TechCrunch, the round was led by CNP Assurances, with existing investors XAnge, New Alpha AM, ODDO BHF and Groupe Duval also participating.
Lydia is now the mobile payment leader in France, where it began by offering new users free and instant transactions between friends. Now, it allows users to pay in store, online and more with their account. Customers can even use it to pay on Cdiscount, France’s second-largest eCommerce website behind Amazon.fr.
And for places that don’t accept Lydia, the company has launched a credit card connected to the user’s Lydia account. It allows customers to replenish their balance with their personal IBAN, activate or deactivate features in real time and more. There’s also the option to enable the card and add it to Apple Pay.
Lydia processes around 1 million transactions per month – €25 million in monthly volume. There are more than one million registered users, with more than 2,000 people signing each day.
The company recently launched in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Portugal. There are plans to expand even further, with Germany and Austria the next targets. The company also plans to hire more staff; there are currently around 40 employees; the startup wants to increase to 60 employees by the end of this year, and 90 by the end of 2019.
“We’ve never grown so fast,” co-founder and CEO Cyril Chiche told TechCrunch. “In 2018, we’re probably going to grow more quickly than PayPal in France.”
“What’s interesting in particular is that the growth rate for transactions is higher than the user growth rate,” he added.
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