Lightyear: Investing? Own it

First off, investing always means that your funds are at risk of going down as well as up.

With that appropriate warning clearly communicated, welcome to Lightyear. We’re a team that helped bring you some of your favourite apps, including TransferWise, Robinhood, Revolut and TradingView.

Our mission is to build the best command terminal for all investors, so you can invest your money globally in stocks or ETFs, from just £1 or €1 with absolutely, positively, no hidden fees.

This is pretty important because – in our honest opinion – for too long us Europeans (yes, Brits too) have had a far worse deal compared to our investing American counterparts: more restricted access to markets, bad currency conversion rates, high fees, and crazy stupid onboarding processes. No thanks.

We’re here to change all of that, and make the world of investing a bit of a happier one. So let’s take a look at how exactly we do this.

1. Gain access to over 3,000 international stocks, with no trading, custody or account fees (unless you keep paying by debit card over £500, instead of by free bank transfer, in which case it’s 0.5%). While you're at it, also wave goodbye to all those high barriers to entry and start learning to invest for yourself from as little as £1.

2. Financial freedom shouldn’t cost the earth. Our multi-currency accounts allow you to deposit, hold and invest in global stocks in their native currencies. Investing in local stocks is completely free from fees, and when it comes to foreign exchange (FX), we charge a simple flat rate of 0.35%.

3. The more you know, the further you’ll go. Access live news feeds about the stocks you own, as well as professional analyst ratings and price targets. We also keep the lingo around here clear and our jargon non-existent – so you can better understand exactly what’s what on your investing journey. All our data and educational resources are completely free.

Disclosures

One more important warning for the road: as with all investing, your capital is at risk, so please don’t do anything reckless out there.

Now for the technical details: Lightyear Europe AS who are authorised and regulated as an investment firm by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) under activity licence number 4.1-1/31. UK customers are served by Lightyear Financial Ltd, an appointed representative of RiskSave Technologies Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 775330).

Lightyear Europe AS customers are part of the EU asset guarantee scheme Should Lightyear Europe default, all our customers have their equities covered up to the amount of 20,000 EUR by the Estonian Investor Protection Sectoral Fund. Your US securities are held with our partner Alpaca, who is FINRA regulated and a registered member of the SIPC. This means your US securities are protected up to the value of $500,000 should Alpaca fail. Please be aware that these protections do not cover poor investment performance.