Lidya (fintech)

Lidya is a financial services platform..^[1] that lets SMEs apply online for and get credit within 24 hours^[2]. Founded in 2016, Lidya provides small business owners access to a working capital loan they can use to expand their business operations^[3]. Lidya has operations in New York, Lagos, Porto, Warsaw and Prague^[4] and 50 employees from 8 different countries^[5].

Lidya’s digital platform assesses over 1,000 data points per loan and enables SMEs to access working capital and build a credit score^[6]. Based on this score, Lidya gives loans ranging from $150 to $100,000 to a business^[7]. The average loans size is US$2,500 and the default rate is 0.6%^[8]. Businesses borrowing from Lidya operate in a range of sectors including; farming, hospitality, logistics, retail, real estate, technology and health sectors^[9]. The platform offers free invoicing services to customers so users can create an invoice with their company’s profile and send to their customers digitally, while managing their cash flows, customer data and tracking their payments^[10].

Lidya was founded in 2016 by Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin^[11]. Kehinde is also the co-founder of Jumia Nigeria^[12], and Eksin is the former COO of Jumia Africa^[13]. The duo also founded logistics company Africa Courier Express^[14]. Lidya has raised $8.2-million since inception^[15] from investors such as Accion Venture Lab, Flourish, Bamboo Capital Partners, Alitheia Capital, Goodwell Investments, and Newid Capital^[16].

History[edit]

In September 2016, Tunde Kehinde & Ercin Eksin launch Lidya^[17].

In March 2017, Lidya closed a US$1.25 million seed funding round led by Accion International|Accion Venture Lab, which also involved Newid Capital and other angel investors^[18].

In May 2018 the startup announced that it had raised US$6.9 million in a Series-A round led by Silicon Valley-based philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network. Lidya has said it has provided loans to over 1,500 businesses^[19].

In June 2019 Lidya reportedly disbursed more than 6,700 loans to SMEs since their operations began^[20].

As of July 2019, Lidya reportedly disbursed more than 10,000 loans to 2,000 businesses in Nigeria^[21].

On 15 October 2019, Lidya announced its expansion into Poland and the Czech Republic^[22], where the World Bank estimates the SME funding gap for the two countries at US$200 billion^[23]. Libor Vanicek, the former head of retail banking for ING Bank Czech Republic, joined Lidya as Country Director for Czech Republic^[24]. At the time of the expansion announcement, Lidya said it plans to disburse US$1.1 billion within the next five years to small businesses in Europe^[25]. Lidya began operations in the Czech Republic in February 2020^[26].

As of November 2019, Lidya had lent over 11,000 loans totalling over US$31 million to Nigerian small businesses^[27].

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