Swiss Fintech Light Frame Secures $5.1M Seed to Modernise Private Banking Infrastructure

Light Frame has secured $5.1 million in an oversubscribed Seed funding round to replace aging core banking infrastructure within the wealth management sector. By providing a cloud-native, AI-first platform, the Swiss-engineered fintech aims to help EMEA-based institutions move away from legacy systems that currently hinder operational efficiency and the delivery of modern client services.

What was announced

Light Frame closed a $5.1 million Seed financing round led by Fortino Ventures. The round saw participation from a broad group of investors including Sidekick Partners, Tenity, Chamaeleon, and AltaIR Capital, alongside existing backers Rogue Venture Partners, New Stack Ventures, and Studio Alpha. The capital is earmarked for further platform development, increasing client delivery capacity, and expanding commercial operations across the EMEA region.

The company’s technology addresses a specific pain point in the wealth industry: the reliance on decades-old architectures that are slow to implement and expensive to run. Light Frame’s solution is a modular, cloud-native core banking and portfolio management system. It features an API-first architecture designed specifically to integrate artificial intelligence. This includes an embedded AI layer and a secure interoperability layer, allowing institutions to automate complex back-office tasks and improve productivity.

Because the platform is fully modular, wealth managers can choose to replace specific components of their existing stack or migrate to the full suite. This flexibility is intended to reduce the high total cost of ownership and the lengthy implementation timelines typically associated with core banking migrations. The firm is already supporting live client operations in the private banking and wealth management sectors, focusing its initial commercial growth on the EMEA market.

"AI is redefining what technology can deliver, but the realization of its potential in the Wealth industry is dependent on the underlying infrastructure. The architecture must be designed around this future, without compromising the security, resilience and trust fundamental to banking."

Schuyler Weiss, Chief Executive Officer at Light Frame

The companies involved

Light Frame was established in 2024 by a team with direct experience in the Swiss regulatory environment. Chief Executive Officer Schuyler Weiss was the founder and former CEO of Alpian, Switzerland’s first cloud-native private bank. He is joined by co-founders Mathieu Clément, who served as Alpian’s COO and CIO, and technologists Philippe Kernevez and Gregory Bataille. This founding team previously built and operated a regulated bank, giving them firsthand insight into the limitations of traditional infrastructure.

The lead investor, Fortino Ventures, is joined by several notable fintech specialists. Tenity is a prominent global innovation ecosystem and early-stage investor that has been particularly active in the European and Middle Eastern markets. Other participants include Sidekick Partners and AltaIR Capital. The investor group also includes Studio Alpha and New Stack Ventures, reflecting a mix of institutional and venture capital focused on the digital transformation of financial services. By leveraging Switzerland’s reputation for banking excellence and combining it with modern software engineering, Light Frame positions itself as a bridge between traditional private banking values and the requirements of the digital age.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the activity of Light Frame’s investors, particularly Tenity, which has established itself as a prolific backer of emerging financial technology. We recently covered how Tenity Strengthens Position as Leading Fintech Investor with 10 New Portfolio Companies, highlighting its aggressive expansion strategy. The firm has also been active in geographic expansion, as seen when Tenity Strengthens Nordic and UK Presence with Appointment of Oliver Sjöstedt as Principal. Additionally, the broader trend of modernising private market infrastructure was reflected in our report on how LemonEdge Secures $21M Series A Led by Blackstone to Modernize Private Markets Infrastructure.

What this means

The wealth management sector has long been a laggard in core banking transformation, often shielded by high margins and a "high-touch" service model that prioritised human relationships over technical efficiency. However, as AI becomes a competitive necessity rather than a luxury, the fragility of legacy "spaghetti" code is being exposed. Light Frame’s entry puts pressure on established core banking giants who have struggled to make their monolithic systems truly cloud-native or AI-ready. The industry is moving toward a modular reality where "rip and replace" is no longer the only option, allowing institutions to modernise incrementally without the catastrophic risk of a total system failure.