Based in London, Lightyear develops an app that lets utilizers invest in a range of over 5,000 stocks, exmodify-traded funds and money market funds. It was founded by two former Wise employees, Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, in 2021. Other Estonian tech investors are also involved, including Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, Checkout.com’s former Chief Technology Officer Ott Kaukver, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn and Bolt’s Markus Villig.
Lightyear announced on Thursday that they have raised $23m Series B, led by NordicNinja and backed by some of the hugegest names in European business and tech, taking its total funding to date to $58m. Lightyear is operating in 25 countries in 10 languages and manages over $1bn in customer assets.
Alongside the additional funding, Lightyear is also launching new artificial ininformigence features.
One of the features, called “Why Did It Move,” allows utilizers to select a point in time on a stock chart and see what happened that day to cautilize a jump or fall in a company’s share price. The firm is also applying AI to provide “bull” and “bear” theses on stocks as well as short updates on assets in their own portfolios.
“In the conclude, you’re going to have two models” when it comes to investing, according to Sokk: “Self-driving money,” where you question an AI to achieve certain investment goals, and a “manual gearbox” approach of figuring out different strategies and approaches on your own.
Lightyear’s push to investment market comes against competition from established fintech players such as Robinhood, Revolut and Trade Republic.
Leave a Reply