“Can a Nigerian SME lender survive by becoming credit infrastructure for other African lenders rather than a balance-sheet lender itself?”
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.
Lidya processes payments through Lidya Payments (self-operated) and Lidya Collect (self-operated).
Lidya's lending and capital products are provided by Lidya (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Lidya's stack: Payments / PSP (Lidya Payments (self-operated) and Lidya Collect (self-operated)); Lending (Lidya (in-house), Lidya Boost (working capital loans for SMEs) and Lidya credit-infrastructure platform (customer acquisition, loan origination, collections for third-party lenders)).
Lidya was founded by Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin and is founded in 2016, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Lidya has raised $16.5M in total (latest round: Pre-Series B, 2021).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Lidya and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.