All students know the Lydia application. Co-founded by Cyril Chiche and Antoine Porte, the success of this startup, which has become a Super App, can be measured with the appearance of an expression that has become essential: “I’ll make you a Lydia”. In this new issue of So Biz, the entrepreneur looks back on Lydia’s beginnings, the origin of this very special name, her great successes, her failures and the plans for her business.
What student has never used Lydia? You go shopping for an evening or you pay for the meal with your friends and they say: “Pay, I’ll make you a Lydia”. In recent years, you must have found yourself in this situation!
Behind Lydia, a NEXT40 startup, are two men, Cyril Chiche and Antoine Porte. They both showed the desire to revolutionize the way we pay by positioning themselves on mobile payment. Much more than an application allowing you to reimburse your friends, the two entrepreneurs have evolved their product to create a Super App which now offers a real bank account, joint accounts and, soon, a system for investing in the stock market.
Cyril Chiche and Lydia conquer campuses
Originally, Lydia offers a payment system for individuals and professionals. It was therefore necessary to find sellers and potential customers simultaneously. It was not an easy task for Cyril Chiche who explains that he first approached taxi drivers who were not open to this innovation.
After several months of research, they finally found THE solution! They set out to conquer campuses, starting with a BDE which was looking for a simple payment system for its evenings. In this issue of So Biz, Cyril Chiche explains that it was when he heard a student from Paris-Dauphine University say to his friend “I’m making you a Lydia”, that he understood the popularity of his application with higher education students.
Even today, the startup continues its commitment to student communities with Lydia Campus. But this is not the only ambition of the startup which really wishes to develop its application in order to finally achieve profitability by 2022.
