SUCCESS STORY
Circlub and Lemonway: Automating and securing payment flows in the private markets
~€10 M
Transaction volume (end of 2025)
€100 K
Average investment ticket
2-3
months for Lemonway integration duration
~€10 M
Transaction volume (end of 2025)
€100 K
Average investment ticket
2-3
months for Lemonway integration duration
1. The company
Circlub is a French fintech, licensed in 2025 as an Investment Firm (PSI) by the ACPR (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution). Launched in September 2025, Circlub offers primary financing operations in equity or through bond issuances, and will launch its first secondary market operations starting in autumn 2026.
Its mission: to streamline the private markets by facilitating access to financing and creating liquidity for companies, retail and professional investors, family offices and distributors (wealth managers, investment advisers).
The platform operates across the entire private investment chain:
- Primary financing (debt / equity)
- Secondary transactions
- Structured club deals
- Liquidity programmes
“ Circlub is building the next generation of infrastructure dedicated to private markets, combining technology, PSI regulation and operational execution. ”
Emmanuel Seviran
Co-Founder & Chairman, Circlub
2. The challenge: building a compliant and scalable digital payment infrastructure
A demanding PSI framework
Operating as a PSI requires absolute rigour in managing financial flows. Circlub needed to build an infrastructure capable of meeting strict regulatory requirements – particularly regarding segregation of funds, traceability of transactions and KYC/AML verification – whilst delivering a digitalised user experience.
Why traditional solutions were insufficient
Circlub initially explored traditional banking solutions with ultimately a negative outcome: "we consulted the traditional banks, but the proposed solutions lacked agility. The complexity of setting up segregated accounts for our operations represented a major obstacle" emphasises Brahim Benaissa, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Circlub.
PSP selection criteria
To choose the right payment service provider, Circlub defined the following criteria:
- Digital and secure capabilities: automated onboarding, integrated document verification, complete traceability
- Segregated account management: ability to create and manage segregated accounts for each investor
- Responsiveness and support: available teams, dedicated support, responsiveness to regulatory challenges
- Industry expertise: genuine understanding of how investment platforms operate
3. Why Lemonway?
Circlub conducted an evaluation of different providers with particular attention to legal and technical aspects.
“ Lemonway combines compliance with genuine expertise in private markets. What made the difference: Lemonway doesn't offer a generic solution, but an infrastructure designed for investment platforms like Circlub. ”
Emmanuel Seviran
Co-Founder & Chairman, Circlub
Key differentiators
- Recognised expertise in investment platforms – Lemonway understands the specifics of marketplaces and investment operations, not just standard payments.
- Creation of dedicated wallets by transaction type – Ability to structure accounts in a granular way, in line with the segregation and traceability requirements mandated by PSI regulation.
- Compliance integrated from the start – Clear API documentation, responsive onboarding teams, proactive approach to ACPR compliance issues.
- Scalability – Flexibility to adapt to evolving operational and regulatory requirements.
4. Integration: 2–3 months to go live
A smooth process, even under regulatory constraint
The Lemonway integration took less than 3 months, including legal scoping, API integration, compliance testing and go-live.
“ The collaboration between our tech teams and their onboarding teams was smooth. We benefited from very good API documentation and responsive support at every stage of the project. ”
Brahim Benaissa
Co-Founder & CEO, Circlub
Architecture and key features
The Lemonway solution integrated by Circlub encompasses:
- Fast and secure onboarding (KYC/AML): automated and traceable document verification for each investor
- Segregated account management: creation and management of dedicated wallets by transaction type
- 100% online subscription: fully digitalised journey, from discovery to signature
- Complete flow traceability: every transaction documented for audit and regulatory compliance
- Customised monitoring and reporting: dedicated dashboards with visibility on operations
5. Results: strengthened compliance, streamlined operations
A compliance-focused relationship
"As a PSI, we demand absolute rigour in managing flows. Lemonway provides a compliant execution framework aligned with the requirements of our regulatory standards. Compliance, responsiveness and traceability of operations are essential aspects for us." Emmanuel Seviran
Benefits observed
- KYC/KYB automation
Fewer manual tasks, reduced errors, shorter timeframes - Complete traceability of operations
Irrefutable audit trail for regulator and internal governance - Improved user experience
Simpler, faster, more transparent - Reduced regulatory risks
Integrated compliance, secure flows and processes - Operational scalability
Growing transaction volume without increasing internal resources
6. Looking ahead: major acceleration
In 2026 Circlub will deploy:
- new equity and bond financing solutions
- innovative liquidity programmes
- new features on the www.circlub.fr platform
“ Lemonway enables us to scale responsibly. As we move from €10M to accelerated growth in 2026, we have the certainty that our payment and compliance processes will hold up. ”
Sébastien Mellot
Co-Founder & CTO, Circlub
About Lemonway
Lemonway is a pan-European Payment Institution offering a solution dedicated to marketplaces, and alternative finance platforms looking for a payment processing and collection system on behalf of third parties in a secure and regulated framework. Regulated by the ACPR and benefiting from the European passport in 29 countries, Lemonway is based in Paris, Hamburg and Milan.
