Estonia's tech elite are getting behind a European challenger to Robinhood

On the other hand, A host of Estonia's top entrepreneurs — including ride-hailing unicorn Bolt's CEO Markus Villig — also invested in the company

Lightyear also debuted several AI features, including one that lets users see what caused a jump or fall in a stock's price on any given day

This leads to the conclusion that Lightyear app

LightyearSome of the biggest names of Estonia's scene are backing Lightyear, a startup looking to become Europe's answer to commission-free trading pioneer Robinhood

Furthermore, Estonian entrepreneur Markus Villig, who co-founded ride-hailing unicorn Bolt has also invested

However, Lightyear CEO Sokk told CNBC that the firm didn't necessarily need to raise more cash for the but chose to do so because of the caliber of investors involved

Moreover, On the other hand, "People Markus have been building massive companies in many, many, and this is something that's really exciting for us because it's so hard to go into all the and understand their local dynamics and what people need," he said

However, Lightyear currently operates in 25 countries

Furthermore, However, with help from angel investors Bolt's Villig, the firm will be able to launch in another five "pretty quickly," Sokk said

Furthermore, Villig told CNBC that it can be "challenging to scale a across multiple countries in a heavily regulated sector," adding that Europe's less developed retail market vides ample opportunities for disruption

Nevertheless, Other Estonian angel investors who have previously backed Lightyear also participated in the funding round, including Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, Checkout

Com's former Chief nology Officer Ott Kaukver and Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn

Estonia is widely considered a minent hub in Europe

The country is to the highest number of unicorns per capita in Europe, according to the Estonian Investment Agency (an important development), amid market uncertainty

Moreover, Meanwhile, Estonia's e-residency scheme has also enabled foreigners to become digital residents and launch their companies in the country, considering recent developments

Furthermore, Meanwhile, The new round values five-year-old Lightyear at between $200 million and $300 million, significantly higher than its valuation in 2022 when it raised $25 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who preferred to remain anonymous as the information has not been made public

Pushing into AI, cryptoAlongside the additional funding, Lightyear is also launching new artificial intelligence features

AI has been a hot area of investment for startups ing the explosive ity of generative AI services OpenAI's ChatGPT

One of the features, called "Why Did It Move," allows users to select a point in time on a stock chart and see what happened that day to cause a jump or fall in a company's price

This analysis suggests that firm is also using AI to vide "bull" and "bear" theses on stocks as well as short on assets in their own portfolios, in today's financial world. "In the end, you're going to have two models" when it comes to, according to Sokk: "Self-driving money," where you ask an AI to achieve certain investment goals, and a "manual gearbox" apach of figuring out different strategies and apaches on your own

Still, the market for online investment ducts is heavily competitive (an important development)

Lightyear faces some hefty competition from both incumbent brokerage services as well as more modern players such as Robinhood, Revolut and Trade Republic

However, Sokk insists Lightyear is building a differentiated enough duct to stand out from the crowd

While competitors Robinhood fit from offering risky ducts crypto and margin trading, Lightyear is focused on serving long-term investors, he told CNBC, given the current landscape

To that end, Sokk said Lightyear is planning on rolling out a crypto duct of its own in two months' time — one that's "more focused on a long-term view.