Global investment platform Lightyear today announces a $23 million Series B investment round to bolster retail investing in the UK, alongside unveiling a new suite of AI-powered market intelligence tools.
The round is led by NordicNinja, the largest Japanese-backed VC in Europe, with additional investment from Superangel, SpecialistVC, Lightyear’s existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Metaplanet and Skaala have also committed fresh capital.
Lightyear continues to welcome notable angel investors from some of Europe’s most successful technology companies, such as Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus, Checkout.com’s Ott Kaukver and Skype’s Jaan Tallinn. New in this Series B round, Lightyear welcomes Bolt’s founder and CEO, Markus Villig.
Against the backdrop of the UK Government’s planned consumer campaign to steer Brits towards stocks and shares investments, Lightyear’s funding round represents a new direction of travel for UK retail investing – affordable, simple, and accessible as opposed to expensive, clunky, and exclusive.
Today, the platform also launches in the three new markets of Sweden, Denmark and Bulgaria. This expansion into new Nordics and Central European countries cements Lightyear’s position as the fastest expanding investment company in Europe.
Lightyear will use this capital to launch a host of AI-powered market intelligence tools, in the first stage of the company’s AI strategy. Access to high-quality and concise information about stocks, funds and market sentiment is hard to get and often limited behind subscriptions or paywalls. Today’s launches include three new features that break open access to expert analysis and financial news, summarised in the context of a user’s portfolio and what they’re looking at.
The new ‘Why Did It Move’ feature allows users to tap on a historical point in time on an instrument chart and see a summary of what happened for the spike or dip. An interactive ‘Bulls Say, Bears Say’ tool carefully analyses hundreds of trusted sources, building a case both for and against an instrument. Finally, ‘Lightning Updates’ gives users bite-sized updates on the instruments a user holds or watches, the macro climate, and market sentiment.
Next, Lightyear will further evolve its AI arm to bring broad wealth management capabilities into the hands of retail investors.
Lightyear’s Series B round coincides with the company reaching $1bn in customer assets, indicating the platform’s rapid growth since coming out of stealth mode in 2021.
Since launching across Europe in 2022, Lightyear has given investors in 25 countries across Europe access to the world’s financial markets. In January 2025, ‘re-launched’ in the UK, marked by its FCA Authorisation for a Stocks & Shares ISA, created to challenge incumbents, demonstrating astronomical growth since entering the UK market.
Martin Sokk, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear, said: “This Series B round is a huge vote of confidence in the untapped potential of investing in Europe and Lightyear’s ability to make the difference. Driving meaningful progress in this market means removing barriers to entry and demystifying investing for ordinary people, and that’s why we feel so strongly about our vision for AI and the future of investing. We’ve been busy making huge leaps forward in our mission to empower 55 million Brits to build meaningful wealth, so it’s an incredibly exciting time for the business right now.”
Rainer Sternfeld, Partner at NordicNinja, said: “We’re excited to lead Lightyear’s Series B as they continue to make waves across Europe. Our goal as investors is to find companies solving real problems with next-level solutions. We believe that AI will play a powerful role in every aspect of our future, and the investing sector is not immune to that. Martin & Mihkel have an unparalleled vision for how it will shape the future of retail investing in Europe, and we couldn’t wait to join in on that.”
Markus Villig, CEO and founder of Bolt, said: “It can be challenging to scale a business across multiple countries in a heavily regulated sector. So it takes a talented and fast-moving team with a laser focus to build a product that is helping Europeans grow their wealth, with a great user experience. I’m excited to back Martin and Mihkel on their mission to disrupt that market.”
Read the orginal article: https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/funding/investment-platform-lightyear-raises-23m-series-b-to-power-uk-retail-investment/
