API fintech Alpaca secures $50m in funding
Stock brokerage platform Alpaca has closed a $50 million Series B funding round.
Alpaca has raised $72 million since 2018
The funding round comes during a bumper year for the API-focused stock brokerage platform.
The firm claims the number of its funded brokerage accounts has increased more than 1,500% following the launch of its Broker API.
Broker API enables fintechs to build and launch commission-free stock trading apps by leveraging Alpaca’s suite of developer APIs.
Alpaca also offers fractional shares through its app partners, allowing investors in any country to buy into the US stock market for as little as $1.
The funding round was led by California-based venture capital firm Tribe Capital, with participation from Horizons Ventures, Eldridge, and Positive Sum and existing investors Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, and Social Leverage.
Alpaca also announced a new crypto offering and a partnership with data network Plaid, allowing Broker API partners to streamline the account funding and authentication process for their customers.
The upcoming crypto product forms part of a multi-asset class strategy, Alpaca says, and will be made available for both retail consumers and B2B partners to buy, sell, hold, and trade cryptocurrencies via Alpaca’s developer-first APIs.
Since its launch in 2018, Alpaca has built partnerships throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas and has raised a total of $72 million from investors, closing a $10 million Series A led by Portage Ventures last year.
Alpaca founder and CEO, Yoshi Yokokawa, says that by the end of the year almost 100 global fintech apps will go live based on Alpaca APIs.
“We’re unlocking the ability to invest in US companies in places around the world that have never had this opportunity and through fintech partners that share our vision of democratising investing.”
Tribe Capital co-founder and partner Arjun Sethi says the crypto launch is the first of many products that will give global investors access to US markets.
He adds: “Our modern financial system runs on antiquated rails. Alpaca has established itself as the go-to developer-first API for investing.”
