Fintech startup Lightyear announced the launch of Lightyear Profiles, which is a way for investors to share “high-level” details regarding their investment portfolio with friends.
It creates individual and personalized web pages for every user highlighting their portfolio holdings, recent activities, and which stocks are on their watchlist.
Talking about money has often been a “taboo topic.” A survey in 2021 revealed that 75% of Brits are “uncomfortable talking about money with friends and family.” However, things are changing, “especially when it comes to investing.” Retail investing surged in 2020 and 2021, and so did investment communities “with the number of younger investors taking part growing rapidly.” With Profiles, Lightyear is equipping clients with the tools they require to be part of, and create, investment communities.
Consumers are now talking, sharing, and getting inspiration from each other “when it comes to investing, happening predominantly online in forums or on social media.” Lightyear has developed Profiles, which is the firm’s first expansion into social investing tools, “believing its potential to make learning about investing far more accessible and an easy way to stay connected with friends on investment journeys.”
Martin Sokk, CEO and Co-Founder at Lightyear, stated:
“Our goal has always been to build a platform that’s cognitively easy to use, has the best customer experience and helps people become the best investors they can be. People are having conversations about investing far more frequently now, and we wanted to give them the tools to be able to structure those discussions, create their own communities and make it easier for them to share.”
Nishil Parekh, Product at Lightyear, remarked:
“As a product builder, I spend a huge amount of time with customers to understand how they are approaching investing and what drives them. Something has become very apparent recently: more and more people are talking about investing with their friends. It can be really intimidating to make that first investment, or to even know where to start, and the dialogue between friends is proving to be a catalyst that we wanted to build into the product.”
Every client has the option to set their Lightyear Profile to public or private, and by default, it’s always set to private, which “won’t change unless a customer chooses to share.” Clients have the option to modify the setting between the two at any time. Portfolio balance, transaction amounts and personal details are “never shared on the profile web link.”
From today, users can switch on Lightyear Profiles in their account, and “start sharing with their friends through messages, or post them on social media.”
As covered, Lightyear is a simple and approachable way “to invest your money globally without unnecessary barriers or fees.”
Established in October 2020 by Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, both early Wise (formerly TransferWise) employees, Lightyear maintains business offices in London, UK and Tallinn, Estonia.
The firm is “an appointed representative of RiskSave Technologies Ltd, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 775330).”
The Fintech secured $10 million to date and is “backed by Mosaic Ventures, Metaplanet, Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of Wise and Sten Tamkivi, founder of Teleport.” Other investors “include early Monzo backer and HM Treasury Special Envoy for Fintech Eileen Burbidge MBE, Robinhood UK’s Wander Rutgers, Ott Kaukver of checkout.com and Kaarel Kotkas, the founder of Veriff.”