Since its launch, Lydia has made over 1,500 business loans to help MSMEs in farming, hospitality, logistics, retail, real estate, technology, and health get the capital they need to grow their operations. Lydia has just announced raising $6.9m in Series A funding led by Omidyar Network, with support from early Paga investor, Alitheia Capital (via the uMunthu inclusive growth fund), Bamboo Capital Partners, and Tekton Ventures. Existing investors, Accion Venture Lab and Newid Capital also participated. This is coming only 14 months after it raised a $1.25m seed round in March, 2017.
This funding round will allow Lidya to expand its loan book, scale in Nigeria, enter new markets in Africa, and bring in more skilled professionals, particularly data scientists and engineers. “Lidya was founded on a simple, yet fundamental idea: technology can unleash and empower a generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs throughout Africa by revolutionizing how risk is assessed, credit is underwritten, and customers are banked,” said Tunde Kehinde, co-founder of Lidya.
“We are excited by the overwhelming support from the investor community, which signals a great confidence in our business model and team,” added Ercin Eksin, co-founder of Lidya.
Ameya Upadhyay, investment principal at Omidyar Network and Lidya’s newest board member, said access to flexible, affordable credit was at the crux of unlocking growth in the MSME sector.
“Lidya is addressing that by using smart algorithms to analyze transaction data from small businesses to assess their creditworthiness,” she said. “This data-driven approach allows the company to offer loans without the need of hard collateral-a requirement that has scuttled MSME financing in Africa. In the process, Lidya gathers insights that help expand its product portfolio to become a holistic partner to small businesses.”
