French fintech startup Lydia raises $86 million

Paris-based Lydia, a mobile financial services platform, has raised an additional $86 million in Series B round. The round was led by Accel, the global venture capital firm, the company reports. The total Series B funding round now sits at $131M, making it the largest round ever raised by a French fintech.

Founded in 2013 by Antoine Porte and Cyril Chiche, Lydia is a fast-growing mobile financial services platform with over 4 Million users and a 30% market share among French Millennials, who use its brand as a verb. It is the most successful French B2C fintech having raised over $160 million in funding from investors such as Tencent, XAnge, New Alpha, Groupe Duval, and Founders Future.

The new funding will be used to accelerate Lydia’s product road map to capture the shift in consumer preferences towards mobile-first apps with simple yet powerful digital banking and financial health capabilities. The company will also use the money to expand its geographic footprint. Into account, Lydia added more users in 2020 than any year in its history, crossing the major threshold of 4 million users in early Q4.

“The uncertainties of 2020 have provoked the younger, mobile generation to look for even more control and real-time visibility of the financial situation,” said Cyril Chiche, co-founder and CEO at Lydia.“This investment will enable us to respond to our customers’ needs faster and move into new markets.”