The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2016–2025
Lidya's data-led SME-lending bet: $16.5M and a Europe push, then an Oct 2025 shutdown
Nigeria's collateral-free SME lender bet ~100 data points could beat banks; it expanded into Europe, then ceased operations in October 2025.
Lidya
What the business is
A digital SME lender giving Nigerian businesses loans of $500–$50,000 with decisions within 24 hours, scored on ~100 data points.
Starting capital：$16.45M of equity — $1.3M seed (2017), $6.9M Series A (2018) and an $8.3M pre-Series B led by Alitheia Capital's uMunthu Fund (2021).
How it started
Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, who held founding and executive roles at Jumia Nigeria and ran Africa Courier Express (ACE), saw that most of the businesses ACE served had credit and financing problems. They launched Lidya in Nigeria in 2016 as a digital SME lender: loans of $500 to $50,000, decisions within 24 hours, each applicant scored on about 100 data points. After a $1.3M seed (2017) and a $6.9M Series A (2018), when it had disbursed 1,500 business loans, the pair chose Europe over other African markets: "We wanted to build a global business from day one," Kehinde told TechCrunch.
What happened
Lidya announced operations in Poland and the Czech Republic in October 2019, kicking off fully during the pandemic, and claimed over $3M disbursed to SMEs there within a year. In July 2021 Alitheia Capital's uMunthu Fund led an $8.3M pre-Series B — taking total funding to about $16.5M — with Lidya claiming 25,000+ loans, a 90%+ customer repeat rate and a default rate below 1%. Co-founder Eksin left the same year in a disputed leadership change (he said investors took control unjustly and that he was litigating). By 2023 Lidya had exited both European markets to refocus on Nigeria and launched Lidya Collect, a loan-recovery product that customers later said froze funds and failed transactions. Co-founder Kehinde and CTO Cristiano Machado left in 2024, and the Portugal-based tech team dissolved amid payroll issues.
How it ended up
Lidya ceased all operations in October 2025, emailing customers that severe financial distress left it unable to process funds or settle claims; users of Lidya Collect were left chasing frozen balances and debt records manually.
Background
Lidya was the Nigerian bet that credit decisions did not need collateral: score a small business on about 100 data points, decide in 24 hours and lend $500–$50,000 into the working-capital gap the founders had watched from inside Africa Courier Express. Backed by a $1.3M seed and a $6.9M Series A, it had disbursed 1,500 business loans by 2018.
The founders then bet the model would travel. Lidya launched in Poland and the Czech Republic in late 2019, expanded through the pandemic and raised an $8.3M pre-Series B in 2021, claiming 25,000+ loans and a 90%+ repeat rate. But co-founder Ercin Eksin left that year in a disputed exit, and within two years the company had pulled out of Europe entirely to refocus on Nigeria.
The retrenchment did not stabilize it. Lidya Collect, launched as a loan-recovery product, became the source of customer complaints about frozen funds and failed transactions. Co-founder Tunde Kehinde and CTO Cristiano Machado left in 2024, and the Portugal tech team dissolved amid reported payroll problems.
In October 2025 Lidya emailed customers that it had ceased all operations — severe financial distress, no ability to process funds or settle claims — after nine years and roughly $16.45M raised. It joined Okra and Edukoya in a wave of Nigerian venture-backed shutdowns that erased tens of millions of dollars of investor capital in 2025.
What has to be true
- The data-over-collateral thesis was never proven at scale; using equity instead of debt to fund the book avoided interest costs but left growth dependent on constant fundraising.
- The Europe expansion doubled the operating surface into Poland and the Czech Republic just before the funding climate turned, and had to be unwound by 2023.
- Founder exits — Eksin in 2021, Kehinde and CTO Machado in 2024 — plus a dissolving Portugal team removed the people who could restructure or reassure investors.
- Lidya Collect turned the company's own customers into stranded claimants: when it failed, users could not recover either their funds or their debt records.
What can be applied
Proving demand and repeat use is not the same as proving a lending model: Lidya's data thesis never survived a funding drought, two market expansions and the departure of its founders.
Aftermath
As of October 2025 Lidya is gone. It announced the cessation of all operations by email, citing severe financial distress and saying it could not process funds or settle claims; customers reported difficulty accessing money layered through Lidya Collect and said they would have to recover debts manually. The company raised roughly $16.45M between 2017 and 2021. Its shutdown followed co-founder and CTO departures in 2024 and was reported by BusinessDay as part of a broader 2025 wave of Nigerian startup closures including Okra, Edukoya and Bento Africa.
Sources
- Lidya shuts down after raising $16.45m
- A year after expanding to Europe, Nigerian fintech Lidya raises $8.3M to scale lending operations
- Nigerian tech graveyard expands as multi-million dollar startups fold
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