Major French mobile financial services app Lydia is slated to offer its 5.5m users exposure to a wide range of crypto assets after a partnership with the Austrian crypto exchange Bitpanda.
As part of the deal, Lydia will integrate Bitpanda’s digital asset investment product, dubbed ‘White Label Solution,’ to allow its customers to invest 24/7 in more than 100 digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, fractional stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETF), and precious metals.
Founded in 2013, Lydia is a daily financial “super-app” said to be used by a third of the French 18 to 35 year olds. The app has raised a total of USD 131m in two funding rounds in 2020, though it did not disclose valuation.
“With Lydia trading, our ambition is to widen access to investment assets, to make it accessible to everyone whether they are simply curious, beginner investors or experts,” said Cyril Chiche, the app’s CEO and co-founder.
“Our goal is to reimagine what it means to invest, by making simple, easy-to-use financial products for everyone,” Eric Demuth, Bitpanda co-founder and CEO, was quoted saying.
Bitpanda raised USD 170m earlier this year in a Series B funding round and earned a valuation of USD 1.2bn, becoming Austria’s first tech unicorn. In its Series C funding round, however, the exchange raised USD 263m, earning a valuation of USD 4.1bn.
Meanwhile, the exchange has been aggressively expanding its presence across Europe. Just recently, Bitpanda unveiled a partnership with Fabrick, an Italian open finance provider, that will offer digital asset trading services to Italian banks and fintechs.
The exchange has also hired former JPMorgan executive Joshua Barraclough as CEO of its advanced trading platform Bitpanda Pro.
“We are confident that this is just the beginning: we are committed to offering everyone investment options for any budget and risk appetite,” Demuth added.
Source: Cryptonews
