Lydia Enables Shared Sub-Accounts With Virtual Cards

To help friends and roommates manage money, the French startup Lydia is letting users of its payment app share sub-accounts. They can also make a virtual card to use with digital wallets such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, according to reports.

Lydia Co-founder and CEO Cyril Chiche said, according to reports, “I use it with my son, for instance. I created a shared account; I set up a virtual card and he added it to his Google Pay.” As a result, his son can use the funds instantly.

With the feature, each user in a shared account can add funds through a bank account or other sub-accounts on the platform, in addition to a debit card in some cases. Users can also receive an IBAN number for their sub-accounts and can use their bank accounts for traditional transfers. The feature has a wide range of uses, from consumers sharing expenses on a ski trip to roommates splitting the cost of utilities.

In 2018, Lydia notched a $16.1 million (€13 million) round of funding. The round was led by CNP Assurances, according to reports, along with the participation of existing investors New Alpha AM, ODDO BHF, XAnge and Groupe Duval. The company was said to be the mobile payment leader in France, where it started by letting users make free and instant transactions. At the time of the investment, it was also reported that the service lets users pay in store and online with their accounts.

The company processed around one million transactions per month, with €25 million in monthly volume as of last year. At the same time, it was reported that the service has more than one million registered users, with more than 2,000 people signing up each day. In addition, the service had recently launched in the Ireland, Spain and U.K., as well as Portugal. Chiche said at the time that the company had not seen such quick growth before, and that “the growth rate for transactions is higher than the user growth rate.”