Last November, we opened up sole beneficiary business accounts in Estonia, a country where many retail investors invest through their business because of local tax structures. After solving this pain point for many of our Estonian customers, we then realised that there’s so much more to the problem. Startups and bigger businesses with more than one beneficiary still didn’t have good access to investments.
In today’s economy, it’s crucial for businesses to manage their assets optimally - including the yield they make on uninvested money. Companies need to make sure that the money they’ve raised and the profits they work hard for don’t lose value sitting in a bank account. There are only a handful of cost optimal options for companies to make their money work for them, meaning most businesses turn to banks’ fixed term deposits — but that come with multiple limitations.
Firstly, as the name suggests, fixed term deposits lock your money for a period of time. If you take it out before the deadline, you can only dream of receiving your accrued interest. Rates are set unfairly, giving higher percentages to large and long term deposits. Additionally, most Estonian banks will only offer you interest on your euro balance, but for international companies, it’s important to earn interest in multiple currencies.
Today, we’re excited to launch business investment accounts for bigger companies.
More than one director? No problem. You can now invest internationally at a low cost and through a user friendly platform. Earn fair interest in EUR, USD and GBP on your uninvested funds, where the rate is set by the central banks’ base interest rate. Lightyear takes a small, transparent 0.75% fee so that the lion's share of accrued interest is always passed on to our customers.
Just like our business accounts for single owner businesses, the signup process is automated with a few clicks. You’re able to automatically fill out the W-8BEN-E tax form and generate a LEI code straight from our app.
As always, we love to hear feedback as well as future product requests! Just get in touch with our team, and we’ll take it from there.
Disclaimer
Remember, when you invest your capital is at risk.
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.
