Lidya
“Can a Nigerian SME lender survive by becoming credit infrastructure for other African lenders rather than a balance-sheet lender itself?”
Founded2016
HQLagos, Nigeria
FoundersTunde Kehinde, Ercin Eksin
Total raised$16.5M
Latest roundPre-Series B, 2021
IndustryFintech / Lending
The story
Lidya started in 2016 as a direct SME lender in Nigeria using a proprietary credit-scoring algorithm. It expanded into Poland and the Czech Republic in 2020 but exited both in 2023 to refocus on Nigeria, pivoting from balance-sheet lending to credit infrastructure (Lidya Boost, Treasury, Payments, Collect, Forecast) sold to other lenders. TechCabal reported in October 2025 that Lidya was calling it a day after a decade of operations.
Product timeline
2016
Lidya launched in Nigeria to close the SME credit gap, offering working capital loans of $500-$50,000 with 24-hour decisions.· lending
2020
Expanded to Poland and Czech Republic to scale SME lending into Eastern Europe.· pivot
2023
Shut down European operations to refocus on Nigeria; repositioned from direct lender to credit-infrastructure enabler for other financial institutions.· pivot
2025
Reportedly wound down operations after a decade.· pivot
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Lidya’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Lidya Payments (self-operated)Lidya Collect (self-operated)
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
3 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.