Lightyear, an investment platform set up by ex-Wise employees, has announced a bumper year despite a wider lull in trading.
“The appetite for investing - despite another rollercoaster year for the public markets - remains high,” the firm said in an update on Thursday.
Lightyear’s assets under management grew by almost 20% month on month throughout 2023, the investment firm reported, marking an increase of almost eight times.
Headcount increased at the company, which was set up in 2020 by Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, by almost 50% to over 50 people, meanwhile.
“2023 was a challenging year for companies to navigate,” partner at Lightspeed, Nicole Quinn, said.
“Despite this, Lightyear had a record year.”
Lightyear, which is also backed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, said technology stocks remained among the most sought after by investors.
This saw Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, ETR:APC) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN, ETR:AMZ) take the spots as the top three most popular stocks on its platform.
Healthcare stocks were also popular, Lightyear said, making up a proportion of the portfolios of over a fifth of the platform’s investors.
Many investors made the most of 2023’s high interest rates, the company added, as an average of 26% of deposits remained uninvested, compared to 18% in 2022.
“As one of the fastest-moving brokerages in Europe, Lightyear has its sights set high for 2024,” the company added.