Lightyear is set to launch cash and stocks & shares ISAs in early 2025, with the intention of challenging major brokers such as Hargreaves Lansdown.
The firm received FCA approval for the products earlier this year, two years after the company was founded by employees of money transfer platform Wise.
The firm told City AM it had made new hires at its London headquarters to support its expansion in the UK, including the launch of the new ISAs.
As part of these plans, chief operating officer Wander Rutgers and former president of trading app Robinhood UK is slated to become Lightyear’s first UK chief executive.
“Unlike others who’ve tried to enter the UK with no experience, we’ve been live here since the start, so we’ve had years of experience in the UK, combined with years of experience building a ‘global-local’ tailored product in each of our other 21 markets,” Rutgers said.
Lightyear currently offers a simple way for users to invest in stocks and ETFs with low fees compared to rivals.
It provides access to over 3,500 investable instruments, including fractional shares and free ETF trading, with no charges for trading ETFs. This is available on both its mobile and web platforms.
The latest Good Money Guide review found it to be “A very well-designed low-cost investing app with discounted FX charges, limit and recurring orders for investing in local and international markets.”
One of the downsides we noted regarding the platform was that it does not offer an ISA, which the upcoming update is set to remedy.
Adding to its product line-up, Lightyear launched “Vaults” in May, allowing customers to hold cash in money market funds managed by BlackRock and receive higher monthly interest payments than they would otherwise.
In October, Lightyear introduced a refer-a-friend offer, which allows users as well as those they refer to the company to earn £10 in free stocks when they join and fund their account with at least £50.
Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.
You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com
