Current investors Tencent and Accel lead the Series C funding round
According to TechCrunch, the French crypto-friendly fintech startup Lydia has secured $100 million in a Series C fundraising round.
Lydia's current capital raising is said to have assisted it achieve unicorn status, with a valuation of more than $1 billion.
The $100 million fundraising round follows the firm's $86 million Series B funding round in December 2020.
Tencent and Accel led the round, which also included Dragoneer and Echo Street. The finance startup intends to utilise the new funding to extend its presence across Europe. By 2025, the firm expects to have onboarded 10 million Europeans.
The app originated as a peer-to-peer mobile payments app before extending to include cash back and personal loans. In collaboration with the Australian crypto exchange Bitpanda, the startup just released its stock and cryptocurrency trading services.
In terms of features, the fintech software is comparable to Cash App or Venmo, and it has 5.5 million users as of now.
Fintech and mobile trading apps have benefited the most from the rise in the popularity of crypto payments in recent years. PayPal, Robinhood, and Venmo, among many other mobile payment firms and fintech trading apps, have unlocked the doors to crypto payments for millions of customers and businesses.
Mainstream mobile payment service providers have also joined the crypto group, and nowadays local payment processors are seeking to benefit from the crypto's increasing influence. Paytm, an Indian mobile payment processor has indicated an interest in crypto payments after the government clarified restrictions.
