Lyra

Lyra is a French payment technology group, founded in Toulouse in January 2001 as Lyra Network and now based in nearby Labège. Its best-known product at home is PayZen, a payment gateway that plugs a merchant's website into the acquiring contract it already holds with its bank. The group reports about 450 staff and offices in Paris, Toulouse, Frankfurt, Barcelona, São Paulo, Mumbai, Lima, Buenos Aires and Bogotá.

PayZen works with all French banks and accepts CB, Visa and Mastercard on every plan. Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, SEPA direct debit, digital meal vouchers and gift cards are paid options, as are instalments from Alma, Oney, FLOA and Cofidis. Further afield Lyra handles Bizum, MB WAY, UPI and Alipay, and in Brazil, where it has worked since 2004, Pix and boleto alongside card and terminal connectivity. Merchants connect through plug-ins, a REST API, an embedded JavaScript form or mobile SDKs, with recurring billing, one-click payment and dynamic currency conversion available.

PayZen's gateway prices are public. Go costs €17.50 a month and Premium €35, each with 100 card transactions included, €0.10 for each extra one and a €174 activation fee; Expert costs €174 a month with 1,000 transactions included. These are gateway charges only, because the card commission comes from the merchant's own acquiring bank. Merchants without such a contract can turn to Lyra Collect, the group's payment institution, authorised by the ACPR since 2017, which provides the acquiring agreement as well as the technology.

Lyra suits French merchants who want to keep their bank's acquiring and add a gateway with local support, and businesses in Latin America looking for a multi-acquirer gateway. It has operated in Argentina since 2017 and Colombia since 2018 and reached several Central American countries in 2023. Methods and services differ between countries, so ask for the list that applies to yours.