French based payments app Lydia has raised a $45mn series B round led by Tencent with existing investors CNP Assurances, XAnge and New Alpha also participating; the company is very popular in France especially for people under 30 years of age and is thought of in a similar way as Venmo is in the U.S.; 25 percent of French people ages 18 to 30 have the Lydia app and more than 5,000 users sign up daily; the company has recently moved beyond p2p payments into a marketplace for financial products like loans and savings; “We have an ambitious goal, which is turning Lydia into a mobile financial service app,” Lydia co-founder and CEO Cyril Chiche said in an interview with TechCrunch; the company plans to use the new funds to improve their current product and expand beyond France. Tech Crunch