French startup Lydia announced it has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round led by Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent.
Though relatively small with only 90 employees, mobile payment app Lydia is wildly popular in France, with 3 million users in the country and 5,000 people signing up every day. A large portion of its users are under 30, with 25% of French people between the ages of 18 and 30 already having registered an account.
Speaking to the latest round of money raised, Lydia co-founder and CEO Cyril Chiche told TechCrunch, “At first, we wanted to raise less but we ended up raising more.”
Though primarily a peer-to-peer payment system, Lydia is looking to expand its service and position itself as more of a versatile money management app. Users can create multiple Lydia accounts and assign them to specific payment purposes.
As is the case with any payment system, user security is of high importance with a Lydia account. Each payment method conducted through the app requires either a security code or biometric authentication, depending on the type of device being used.
For contactless transactions where a mobile phone is used, the security measures used depend on what type of payment method the transaction is conducted through. For example, if a Lydia user associates their account with an Apple Pay account, then Apple Pay security is used for that particular transaction.
For online payments with digital internet cards — temporary payment numbers that are generated from the Lydia app — a security code or biometric authentication is required to complete any transactions.
Lydia is available in other European countries besides France, however the company aims to use this latest round of funding to fuel expansion in growth in other markets, though no specific timeline has been set as of yet.
Sources: TechCrunch, Lydia
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