Lemon Way ripe for expansion with €10m funding
French payments firm Lemon Way has raised €10 million to finance its European expansion and recruit new staff.
When life hands you lemons
The round was led by Breega capital, with participation from Speedinvest, a venture capital fund. This transaction is currently being approved by the French regulator Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR). On this occasion, the two VCs will join the Lemon Way supervisory board.
“We were impressed by the complementarity and vision of the founding team of Lemon Way,” says Guzel Gumerova, partner at Speedinvest.
Lemon Way says it will continue its expansion on a European scale, particularly in Germany and the UK, and to consolidate its positions in France, Spain and Italy, where it collects money on behalf of digital and e-commerce marketplaces, especially for crowdfunding websites (such as Lendix, Wiseed, Housers, Zankyou, Workinvoice).
It will also recruit about 30 people. It currently has 80 people.
According to the firm, it is used by 1,400 marketplaces in Europe including 200 crowdfunding websites.
Since becoming a payment institution in December 2012, the company has opened five million payment accounts and has declared 95 platforms as Lemon Way payment agents with the ACPR.
In 2017, Lemon Way explains that it processed €1.4 billion inflows and outflows against €900 million in 2016 (+ 55%).
It got a turnover of €11 million in 2017, up 69% compared to 2016 (€6.5 million).
It has been self-financing its growth for ten years and now wants to step it up a gear
Its ambition is to process €2.6 billion in 2018 – and cites accounts it has recently signed that can help achieve this – such as the SoLocal Group, CNP Assurances, CCI Store, the Fédération Française de Football and the Fédération Française de Natation.
