Five years ago, the idea of building a truly European investment platform felt almost impossible. Fragmented regulations, different tax systems, languages, currencies… There had to be a better way.

That’s why Mihkel and I put our heads together to build Lightyear. The opportunity to develop a cross-continental solution for successful investors was too big to ignore.

Fast forward to today: We’ve just raised a $23m Series B, led by NordicNinja and backed by some of the biggest names in European business and tech, taking our total funding to date to $58m. We’re now operating in 25 countries in 10 languages. Our explosive growth also means we’ve hit the milestone of $1bn in customer assets.

Better investing is now lightyears closer. But there’s still much more to do, and we’re excited to continue our stellar trajectory.

Introducing our $23m Series B

We’re excited to welcome NordicNinja, one of Europe’s most interesting cross-continental VCs, as the lead for this round, alongside Superangel and SpecialistVC.

Alongside them, we’ve got continued support from Lightspeed, Metaplanet, Skaala and some impressive angels, including Bolt’s Markus Villig, and Wise’s Lars Trunin.

Our investors are alive to the size of the opportunity we have before us. This raise is also a vote of confidence in the product we’ve built, and that we continue to expand and improve.

$1 billion: a major customer milestone

As we announce our Series B, we can also confirm we’ve hit the incredible milestone of $1bn in customer assets.

When we first started Lightyear, this seemed insurmountable. But we had the confidence that what we were developing was truly the best.

To reach this figure in three years is a testament to the strength of our product and how what we’re offering is truly unique in the market. Thank you for the trust you continue to place in us.

More countries, more languages, more growth

Since our last funding round in 2022, we’ve moved at lightspeed to transform Europe’s investment infrastructure. Here are some of the achievements we’re most proud of:

• Operating across 25 different countries, and in 10 languages
• Launching our Cash and Stocks and Share ISAs, following our FCA approval
• Releasing business investment accounts in 18 countries
• Building fractionalisation for European stocks and funds
• Lobbying a law change in Estonia to allow investment firms to be able to offer tax-wrappers
• Launching in Hungary and building a free TBSZ account for local tax-advantaged investing
• Massively expanding the stock and fund universe available on Lightyear, including integrating directly with Nasdaq Baltic to offer stocks from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania 
• Building and launching Vaults/Savings: enabling users to invest in AAA-rated money market funds managed by Blackrock. These typically require a minimum investment of £/€1 million, but we’ve made them accessible to all Lightyear customers from just £/€1 

And that’s just to name a few from a long list.

But now, we’re going even bigger. We’ve added Sweden, Denmark and Bulgaria to the list of countries that we serve from today.

We’re building one investment platform that works across Europe. Not by dumbing things down, but by understanding the complexity of the market and building the tech to handle it.

This round gives us the firepower to expand to even more countries, deepen our localisation, and make the platform feel truly built for every user, not just translated.

But challenges remain

In the EU, households collectively hold nearly €11 trillion in cash. In the UK, 61% of people with more than £10,000 in investable assets hold three-quarters of this in cash. Put simply, the market in which we operate is still a market of savers, not investors.

There’s a long way to go to fix that, but we’re building the tools to get us there.

At Lightyear, we’re not just another neobank or trading app. We’re driven by a genuine mission to improve the entire investment landscape, and there’s still much more to do. Our leaps forward to date are far from insignificant though; Lightyear customers have collectively gained over $125 million, and we’re just getting started.

AI-powered investing is not the future anymore — it’s here

One of the biggest things holding savers back from investing their cash is a lack of information.

Often, a stock’s history is trapped behind expensive paywalls that the average investor can’t afford. Retail investors are also time poor. They have jobs, lives, and families of their own. They don’t have the time to listen to an important earnings call and get the download on a business's history.

Other investment apps provide numbers and tickers, but no context or meaningful insight. Successful investors need to be empowered with the right information, right at their fingertips.

So today, we’re launching three brand new AI-powered tools to help investors stay informed without the noise:

• Why Did It Move? – Tap on a chart, and instantly see a summary of what drove that spike or drop in price.
• Bulls Say / Bears Say – Balanced, trustworthy summaries of the for and against cases for an investment, using credible sources.
• Lightning Updates – Bite-sized updates on the instruments you hold and watch, the macro environment, and market sentiment.

No subscriptions. No paywalls. Just useful, AI-driven tools that help everyone, not just institutions, invest with confidence.

What’s Next?

We’re building for the long term: a platform that brings low-cost, transparent, and intelligent investing to everyone. Whether you’re in Barcelona or Bucharest, Cardiff or Cannes, we want Lightyear to be your home for building meaningful wealth.

That means deeper localisation, smarter tools, better instruments, and full tax integration across the board.

It’s a big mission. But it’s exactly the kind of challenge we thrive on. We’re building that future with you, not just for you. We’re excited to do this, together.

By Martin Sokk

Martin is a lifelong product builder in the finance world having joined Wise as the first product person. Martin began working with Mihkel on the idea for Lightyear in the summer of 2020. After meeting for a coffee to catch up, they both quickly realised that they shared a strong opinion: investing in Europe is still broken.