Fintech funding round-up: 19 February 2018
France, South Korea, India. Our fintech funding round-up journeys across the continents. Features Lydia, Qara and Aye Finance.
Lydia, a French mobile payments start-up, has raised €13 million, taking its total amount raised to over €23 million. The firm is targeting the millennial market and says it passed one million users at the end of 2017 – and adds that 2,000 new accounts are created every day.
CNP Assurances led this funding round, joining the existing investors – including XAnge, New Alpha AM, Oddo BHF and Groupe Duval – who have each made follow-on investments. The latest investment will be used to develop new services, and for growth plans in France, the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
Over in South Korea, robo-advisor start-up Qara has raised $1 million from the UK’s Kinsley Ventures and NX Venture Partners in its pre-series A funding round. The money will be used for the development of its business-to-consumer platform and to hire more engineers.
Qara was founded in 2014, and says it provides an online asset management and P2P investment/crowdfunding platform using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For asset management it offers “Market Dreamer”, which analyses customers’ investment profiles and suggests a customised portfolio.
Fintech in India is usually looking lively and online lending start-up Aye Finance agrees as it has raised $3.8 million. Investors included Hinduja Leyland Finance and IntelleGrow. Last year, it received $1.5 million via the same method of securitising part of its portfolio. The money will be used to disburse $92.8 million by the end of the current financial year. Like many other firms round the world it is targeting micro enterprises.
According to Aye Finance’s website, it is backed by three venture capital Funds – Accion International, SAIF Partners and LGT Impact ventures. The company was founded in 2014, and is headquartered in Gurgaon with 33 branches and 450+ employees.
