The firm has recently raised a $25 million Series A equity round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sir Richard Branson to power its expansion into 19 new European countries alongside the UK.
Lightyear is about to add global ETFs and a wide range of instruments from UK and European exchanges to its product offering in a milestone for the European investment platform.
Going live in one month’s time, the new product offering will include a huge selection of popular local and global stocks listed on exchanges all over Europe including the London Stock Exchange, Euronext and the DAX.
Some of the UK’s household names like Tesco, Lloyds and Unilever are included in the first launch of UK stocks, alongside some popular European stocks such as L’Oreal, Heineken and Société Générale.
The rollout of ETFs also marks the company’s expansion into fund-based products, which are widely considered a good way to diversify a portfolio and a good entry point for newer investors, combining the benefits of diversified mutual funds with real-time pricing, but without high barriers to entry or minimum investment amounts.
An ETF – a short for Exchange Traded Fund – is a collection of hundreds or thousands of stocks or bonds, which is managed by experts in a single fund that trades on major stock exchanges, like the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
Lightyear is preparing the launch of these instruments to customers in the UK and Europe after having secured a full European investment licence earlier this year.
The trading platform was founded by ex-Wise duo Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer who vow to make European equities investing much more accessible than they are today.
With the exception of access to the US markets, connections between Europe’s most popular exchanges has been limited and costly, but Lightyear pledges to bring about a change for retail investors in Europe.
The firm has recently raised a $25 million Series A equity round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sir Richard Branson to power its expansion into 19 new European countries alongside the UK.
Lightyear charges no trading fees, no account fees and no custody fees. The only fee on Lightyear is a simple, flat 0.35% fee for currency conversion.
Martin Sokk, Co-founder and CEO at Lightyear, commented: “One of our primary missions has always been to offer the people of Europe a low cost way to build a global portfolio. Rolling out this new range of international and local stocks, alongside ETFs, is a very big step towards that. We’ve been launching new markets and product features at an incredible speed, having been live for just 12 months and already operating in 20 markets. We couldn’t be happier to bring our customers even more opportunities to build diversified portfolios on Lightyear, consisting of companies closest to their hearts, that they use in their everyday, as well as fund-based instruments.”
