Light Frame raises $5.1m to grow wealth software business in EMEA

Light Frame secures $5.1m seed round led by Fortino Ventures

Light Frame has raised $5.1m in seed funding for its banking infrastructure business, according to Tech.eu. Fortino Ventures led the round, backing a Swiss-American startup that sells software to private banks, wealth managers and asset managers.

Sidekick Partners, Tenity, Chamaeleon and AltaIR Capital also participated. Tech.eu reported that existing investors joining the round included Rogue Venture Partners, New Stack Ventures and Studio Alpha, giving Light Frame support from both new and returning backers.

Former Alpian team targets private banking technology

Founded in 2024, Light Frame grew out of experience at Swiss digital private bank Alpian. Its founders include former senior Alpian personnel, with Alpian’s former chief executive Schuyler Weiss serving as Light Frame’s co-founder and CEO, Tech.eu reported.

Light Frame previously raised $1.7m in pre-seed funding in 2024. The new seed investment brings the combined value of those two disclosed rounds to $6.8m.

The company’s proposition is to replace technology that it regards as dated within traditional private banks. Rather than offering banking services directly to consumers, Light Frame supplies the underlying core banking and portfolio management software used by financial institutions.

According to the company’s description reported by Tech.eu, its cloud-based platform uses APIs and supports tasks including managing clients’ investment portfolios and assets, as well as processing investment and corporate transactions. That puts its technology within the operational systems wealth businesses use to administer client holdings and execute financial activity.

Weiss argues AI needs stronger banking foundations

Weiss linked the company’s ambition to the changing capabilities of artificial intelligence. In comments reported by Tech.eu, he argued that wealth management firms will need suitable underlying infrastructure before they can fully benefit from AI, making system design a prerequisite rather than an afterthought.

He also stressed that preparing banking architecture for those capabilities must not weaken security, operational resilience or the confidence institutions place in their systems. His stated position combines support for technological change with the safeguards expected of banking infrastructure.

Weiss said Fortino Ventures and the wider investor group shared Light Frame’s ambition to provide the technological foundations for a new generation of wealth management. That was the company’s assessment of its investor alignment; the supplied reporting did not include a separate comment from Fortino Ventures.

Platform investment and EMEA commercial hiring come next

Light Frame will use the funding to develop its platform and grow its commercial team across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Tech.eu reported. The stated expansion is regional: the report does not specify individual target countries, a UK launch, hiring numbers or a delivery timetable.

For prospective institutional customers, Light Frame offers a choice between adopting the complete platform and replacing individual components of their existing systems. Its modular design therefore provides a route to incremental modernisation, rather than requiring every customer to undertake a full replacement. For wealth businesses assessing technology for European expansion, that distinction is relevant to how much operational change an implementation would involve.