Is cash really king? 💳 >💵
Physical coins have been around for 28 centuries. But that is all coming to an end in the next decades. During a chat at FF’s event in autumn, Cyril Chiche predicted that cash will no longer exist in the next few decades. He has seen this trend of moving away from cash for digital alternatives accelerated by Covid.
Cyril is CEO and co-founder of Lydia, a Paris-based fast-growing mobile financial services platform with over 4 Million users and a 30% market share among French Millennials, who use its brand as a verb.
Co-founded by Antoine Porte and Cyril Chiche, Lydia launched in 2013. It is one of the most successful French B2C fintech having raised over $160 million in funding from investors such as Tencent, XAnge, New Alpha, Groupe Duval, and Founders Future. He has seen this trend of moving away from cash for digital alternatives accelerated by Covid.
From cashless to contactless, what’s next?
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:30:04
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Crazy Intel. It's not a podcast about big ideas. I'm your host, Michael Stothard, an investor of First minute capital. This is a bite sized episode recorded at a Founders Forum event up in Scotland. And I'm speaking to Cyril Kish, the co-founder of Lydia, which is a start French mobile payments company with 700,000 users. I started by asking him, what is the big crazy prediction for the future?
00:00:30:16 - 00:01:01:05
Speaker 2
Well, I know that's this crazy about, but you know, the name of the company Ilija is after the name of an ancient kingdom where the first coin was minted in the seventh century before Christ. So basically, we've had the cash money in the form of minted coin for the last 28th century. And it's very likely that in the next decades that will be gone, definitely.
00:01:01:05 - 00:01:36:10
Speaker 2
And it's already happening in a vast variety of situation. You go to Copenhagen or Stockholm, you will see on shops and bars cashiers sign saying we don't accept cash. But if you go to China, if you go to Kenya, it's the same. Everybody's paying with the phone. So when that happens, it's very likely that something that I mean, the human civilization has been relying on for trade for the last 28th century will be gone in a few decades.
00:01:36:10 - 00:01:41:08
Speaker 2
And we're super happy and excited to be part of that massive change. It's topical change.
00:01:41:20 - 00:01:54:03
Speaker 1
What does it mean? Like, what are the consequences of getting rid of cash? Like, what are the like? Like what? What are the unforeseen consequences of that? Like what? What gets better? What gets worse?
00:01:55:05 - 00:02:20:18
Speaker 2
Well, it's funny that COVID actually accelerated that transformation because all of a sudden people thought it's dirty to cash, to touch cash, which is something that nobody ever thought about, although we knew it was quite dirty, but we didn't care. And now it's becoming something. And you'll see old people that don't want to touch cash and they go crazy.
00:02:20:18 - 00:02:46:04
Speaker 2
If the baker don't accept contactless payment with the card, which they would scream at them if they ask for contactless payment. Two years ago. So, I mean, for sure, sanitary reasons are important. But also the big difference is when you're in transition, it's difficult. For example, you have people, beggars, waiters, stuff like that, and they leave all that cash, right?
00:02:46:05 - 00:03:19:02
Speaker 2
Cheap stuff like that. And when you have this situation where people are trying to pay cashless, well, you don't have cash in your pockets anymore. I haven't had cash in my pocket for the last two years. So this is creating a very difficult situation for people that rely on this cash. Now, when that changes and it's completely cashless, the system that you chip with, the cards, you chip with your phone, you can and you see that in in China, for example, or in many places where you see beggars with the QR code and you can give money so you don't have an excuse.
00:03:19:09 - 00:03:31:00
Speaker 2
I don't have no cash anymore. So during the transition it sucks. But after a while the excuse of I don't have no point in my pocket. Sorry doesn't exist anymore though. It's really you and your generosity.