Retail investment platform Lightyear is expanding into the small business sector by launching UK business accounts and providing freelancers and sole directors access to money market funds through a partnership with BlackRock.
With another interest rate hike on the horizon, Lightyear’s business accounts are tailored to help freelancers and sole director companies optimize their company funds, ensuring that excess corporate cash isn’t diminished by inflation while sitting in bank current accounts.
In addition to offering 4.5% interest on uninvested GBP, Lightyear allows UK investors to leverage global high interest rates through money market investments, with BlackRock’s GBP money market fund currently yielding 5.14% per annum.
Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise and startup investor in Lightyear, stated, “Businesses in the UK need to ensure their cash is not losing value due to inflation. With today’s high interest rate environment, Lightyear’s introduction of both business investment accounts and money market funds is a timely initiative to assist entrepreneurs in effectively managing their cash. Their new business accounts enable freelancers to earn interest and invest otherwise stagnant cash, while the partnership with BlackRock opens a new realm of investment opportunities previously limited to larger corporations.”
For UK businesses, money market funds have often been challenging to access, with options in the market typically reserved for large entities requiring a minimum investment of £1 million.
Martin Sokk, co-founder and CEO of Lightyear, emphasized, “We’re enabling businesses to truly benefit from rising interest rates—something they simply can’t achieve with traditional banks. We’re initially focusing on the largest yet most underserved segment of the market: sole owner businesses, with plans to extend our services to multi-user and larger businesses in the coming months.”