Investment platform Lightyear announces the launch of its web application.
The requested feature will “enable customers to manage their portfolios, buy/sell shares and research 3,000+ instruments available on Lightyear.”
As noted in the update shared with CI, the importance of offering “a web platform has been clear from customer feedback and feature requests.”
Over half of Lightyear’s customers (57%) have said “that access to their account and data on a bigger screen, like a desktop or laptop, is something that comes into play when choosing which broker to invest their money with.”
Within Lightyear’s web platform, customers will “have a full overview of their investments and information about the 3,000+ stocks and ETFs available.”
Users will be able “to track their portfolio performance, earned interest and also buy and sell shares through web.” All order types will be “supported, which on Lightyear include Market, Limit and Repeat Orders.”
The web platform also “supports currency conversions between GBP, USD and EUR within Lightyear’s multi-currency account.”
Evolving its web offering through customer feedback “will be a main priority for Lightyear’s team moving forward. Some requested features include a wide range of research and analysis tools, including an events calendar, price targets, and fund highlights — which Lightyear is looking to bring to the platform over the next few months.”
In recent months, Lightyear has “launched research features like Portfolio Insights and Profit and Loss Explainer, as well as the option to earn interest on uninvested money in GBP, USD & EUR.”
Banks pay interest to Lightyear “for its customer money, and the company chooses to pass on this interest to benefit customers.” Lightyear’s formula for interest payments “is simple: the amount is always the central banks’ base interest rate, minus a 0.75% fee.”
Most recently, the company “added over 100 UK stocks from the London Stock Exchange, as well as expanding its services into Hungary.” These events shortly “followed the launch of German and Dutch stocks.”
Martin Sokk, Co-founder and CEO at Lightyear, comments:
“Many investors prefer to manage their portfolios on the big screen — myself included. We knew a web app would be a part of Lightyear’s journey in the long term, but by speaking to customers we quickly realised it wasn’t something we should kick down the road, so we’ve been researching and building to get to this point less than one year after our European launch.”
Jani Kiilunen, Lead Product Manager at Lightyear, adds:
“We spend a lot of time speaking to our users to truly understand which products they need from us, and what’s the best way to build them. True to that, we ran customer interviews with customers from all over Europe before starting to build our web app, as well as beta tests with the first iterations, to make sure we’re building a product that fits investors’ needs. I’m very excited about where we got to with the help of our customers, and can’t wait to keep iterating on our web platform based on further feedback and requests.”
As covered, Lightyear claims it is “a simple and approachable way to invest your money globally without unnecessary barriers or fees.”
Founded in October 2020 by Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, both early Wise (formerly TransferWise) employees, Lightyear reportedly “has offices in London, UK and Tallinn, Estonia.”
Lightyear Europe AS is “authorised and regulated as an investment firm by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority having the right to provide services in all EU and EEA countries.”
In the UK, the company Lightyear Financial Ltd is “an appointed representative of RiskSave, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 775330).”
The company has “raised $35 million to date and is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mosaic Ventures, Metaplanet and Taavet+Sten.”
Other investors “include Sir Richard Branson and early Monzo backer and HM Treasury Special Envoy for Fintech Eileen Burbidge MBE.”