Lightyear, a London, UK- and Tallinn, Estonia-based fintech startup, raised an additional $8.5M in seed funding.
The round was led by Mosaic Ventures with participation from existing investors Taavet+Sten and Metaplanet, as well as new angel investors including early Monzo backer Eileen Burbidge, Harsh Sinha, the CTO at Wise and Taavi Tamkivi, the CEO at Salv.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its developement and launch efforts.
Founded by ex-Wise duo Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, Lightyear combines multi-currency accounts with access to global markets so customers can invest without hidden fees. The company has also launched the minimum viable product of its app which will give access to more than 1,000 global stocks. Lightyear will be onboarding customers from its waiting list. With its expansion plans already in play, the company is targeting H1 2022 for a pan-European launch.
Earlier this summer, Lightyear announced a $1.5M pre-seed round from a cohort of fintech industry stalwarts, led by Taavet Hinrikus of Wise and Sten Tamkivi of Teleport and Jaan Tallinn (Metaplanet) of Skype, with participation from Ott Kaukver, the CTO at checkout.com, Wander Rutgers, the former President of Robinhood UK and Kaarel Kotkas, the founder of Veriff.
FinSMEs
15/09/2021