Alpaca, a stock brokerage platform that offers APIs for fintech apps to connect and trade in US stocks, has raised $50 million and laid out its plan to launch cryptocurrency trading.Tribe Capital led the Series B funding round, with participation from Horizons Ventures, Eldridge, Positive Sum, Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, and Social Leverage.
Launched in 2018, Alpaca has seen a 1500% year to date growth in brokerage accounts and expanding partnerships across Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, North and Latin Americas.
Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO, Alpaca, says: “By the end of the year, we’re going to see close to 100 global fintech apps built with our APIs go live with their stock trading platforms.
“We’re unlocking the ability to invest in U.S. companies in places around the world that have never had this opportunity and through fintech partners that share our vision of democratizing investing.”
The firm is now set to launch a cryptocurrency product for both its retail consumers and B2B partners. Customers will soon be able to buy, sell, hold, and trade cryptocurrencies via Alpaca’s developer-first APIs.
Alpaca has also teamed up with Plaid to allow broker API partners to simplify the account funding experience for their customers.
