This week, Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in France.
French start-up Lydia announced the launch of a new digital banking brand this week. Named Sumeria, Lydia plans to invest more than €100 million in the new initiative, as well as hire 400 people over the next three years. Sumeria, according to a post on LinkedIn, offers 4% interest and is designed to be a “simple and accessible banking super app.
“We are convinced that technology (cloud, mobile) is not an end in itself, but a way to simplify life, through everyday details,” the company noted in a statement on its website. Arguing that current accounts should be neither “trendy gadgets” nor make users captive to a given app, system, or institution, the company explained: “It should solve a real problem. This is why Lydia’s choices, with Sumeria, are motivated by common sense and its ambition to be universal: for everyone, for everything.”
Lydia’s brand announcement follows a decision by the company to split its digital banking app into two components. Originally launched in 2013 as a P2P payments app, Lydia’s solution scaled, adding more and more financial services features over the years. It was the launch of its Lydia Accounts offering convinced the company that a change was necessary to keep its early adopters – who relied heavily on the P2P service – onboard. The result was to offer the P2P services separately from Lydia’s digital banking proposition through the Lydia Accounts app. The original Lydia app will become Sumeria, with the new features mentioned above – such as stock trading, savings accounts and loans – to be ported to the new banking brand.
Headquartered in Paris, Lydia has raised more than $259 million in funding. The company’s investors include Accel and Echo Street Capital. In addition to the launch of Sumeria, Lydia is also seeking a credit institution license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority.
Paris, France-based private wealth management startup RockFi raised €3 million in funding this week. The round was led by Varsity I and featured the participation of numerous business angels in technology and private management. The company plans to use the capital to grow its workforce by 3x by the end of 2024 so as to provide private banking and wealth management expertise to clients throughout France.
“Since the beginning of the year, we have seen strong client traction eager for a new model to manage their wealth,” RockFi Co-Founder and CEO Pierre Marin said. “With a market of €4.8 trillion in assets ahead of us and no tech leader yet in France and Europe, our ambition is very high for the coming years.”
RockFi’s model combines human expertise and technology to offer services including banking, wealth management, life insurance, and pension savings. The firm has a targetable clientele with assets of more than €100,000, representing six million households in France.
“Three months after our official launch this is an important step that anchors a strong momentum and allows us to further accelerate the construction of the new private management,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page this week. “The ambition remains: to surround ourselves with the best talent and partners in each field and to deploy a tech ecosystem to unleash the potential of independent wealth managers at the service of their clients.”
Meet Finovate’s French Alums!
Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a number of fintech innovators based in France. Here’s a look at some of French fintechs that have demoed their technology on the Finovate stage in recent years.
Dotfile – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo
ShareID – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo
Numeral – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo
SESAMm – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo
Thread – FinovateEurope 2021 – demo
BLECKWEN – FinovateEurope 2020 – demo
Worldline – FinovateEurope 2017 – demo
Ledger – FinovateEurope 2016 – demo
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
- German B2B payments provider Billie forged a strategic pan-European collaboration with BNP Paribas.
- Klarna expanded its Pay in 3 service to Slovakia.
- U.K.-based business financial platform Tide launched in Germany this week.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Emirates NBD and Pine Labs announced a collaboration to bring new payment solutions to businesses in the region.
- A partnership between NymCard and Dellsons Associates will help bring embedded finance solutions to businesses in the Middle East and Pakistan.
- Israel-based fintech Kima teamed up with Mastercard’s FinSec Innovation Lab to explore use cases for a “defi credit card.”
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian digital payments company PhonePe partnered with LankaPay to bring UPI payment acceptance to Sri Lanka.
- Kazakhstan announced the availability to 10+ new CBDC card services since the launch of its digital tenge.
- U.K.-based startup Fintech Farm raised $32 million in funding to fuel its expansion to India.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- TransNetwork acquired Inswitch to bring cross-border digital payments options to Latin America.
- Mexico-based BNPL platform Aplazo raised $70 million in new funding.
- Uruguayan cross-border payments platform dLocal announced the expansion of its partnership with Deel.
Asia-Pacific
- Backbase, digital enabler SmartOSC, and Vietnam-based OCB partnered to launch the OCB OMNI 4.0 app to enhance digital banking in Vietnam.
- Philippines-based fintech Skyro teamed up with identity verification company ADVANCE.AI.
- Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) is facilitating the use of e-CNY wallets, launched this week.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Mastercard partnered with the Cooperative Bank of Oromia to improve financial inclusion in Ethiopia.
- Payment processing solutions company PayRetailers went live in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
- The Financial Times recognized Africa’s Moniepoint as the fastest growing fintech in the region.
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David Penn
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