Alpaca

Alpaca is an API-first, licensed brokerage infrastructure company that lets developers, fintechs and financial institutions embed investing into their own products. Its Trading API targets individuals, business accounts, algorithmic and proprietary traders, while its Broker API is aimed at businesses such as trading apps and challenger banks that want to offer brokerage services to their end users; a Market Data API supplies real-time pricing and more than six years of historical stock and crypto data. The platform, combined with self-clearing custody, provides access to stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, digital assets and tokenized equities.

The company operates through several regulated entities: AlpacaDB, Inc. is the parent of Alpaca Securities LLC (a FINRA/SIPC member broker-dealer) and Alpaca Crypto LLC (a FinCEN-registered MSB, NMLS #2160858). In Europe, Alpaca Europe is a trading name of WealthKernel Limited, authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (reference 723719), with WealthKernel Spain, A.V., S.L.U. registered with the CNMV (No. 328). Alpaca has secured OCC and FICC memberships, became a Nasdaq Exchange Member, and offers an FDIC bank sweep cash management program alongside SIPC-covered brokerage accounts.

Recent product lines include an Instant Tokenization Network for tokenized equities with instant in-kind mint/redemption and 24/7 API access, High Yield Cash sweep with up to $2.5M of FDIC coverage, multi-leg options, 24/5 trading with REST/FIX integration, fully paid securities lending and stock lending, and OmniSub, an API-first sub-accounting ledger for omnibus structures. The company also supports embeddable Shariah-compliant investing solutions.

Founding story

Co-founders Yoshi Yokokawa and Hitoshi Harada, best friends from college, founded Alpaca in 2015. Yokokawa had previously been a VP in securitized products at Lehman Brothers and Nomura and then a full-time day trader, and had led earlier startups focused on deep learning and enterprise software. The founders described the product they wanted to build as 'very mechanical' and chose a nature-based name after seeing alpacas on a billionaire's estate in the Bay Area.

Business model

Alpaca sells brokerage infrastructure as a service: enterprise partners (fintechs, banks, broker-dealers, wealth managers, crypto platforms) integrate Alpaca's Broker API and self-clearing custody to offer investing to their end customers, while individual and algorithmic traders use the Trading API directly. Revenue-generating features cited on the company's site include securities lending, interest-bearing cash sweep programs, and market data access; options and multi-leg options trading are described as commission-free.

Sources do not itemize pricing. The company reports annual recurring revenue of more than $100 million (January 2026) and states it has doubled revenue year over year for three consecutive years. Product descriptions reference zero-commission multi-leg options, $0 borrow fees on Easy-to-Borrow securities, and revenue generation for partners via securities lending and cash sweep programs.

Traction

As of January 2026 Alpaca reported over 300 partner organizations in more than 40 countries, over 9 million brokerage accounts, more than $100 million in ARR, and 94% share of tokenized U.S. equities and ETFs powered. Its July 2026 announcement cited three consecutive years of doubling revenue, more than $1.5 billion in assets under custody backing tokenized equities, and monthly active API users growing nearly 4x over six months. The Y Combinator profile lists a team size of 150.

Latest developments

In July 2026 Alpaca announced a $135 million raise led by Peak XV with participation from Elefund, Opera Tech Ventures and Unbound, bringing new financing to $435 million including debt from Payward and BMO. Alongside the raise it reported acquiring an IFSCA-regulated broker-dealer and payment service provider in GIFT City, India; acquiring UK and European regulated entities and completing EEA passporting; launching global equities access starting with European equities; onboarding global crypto exchanges and tokenization platforms; and surpassing $1.5 billion in assets under custody backing tokenized equities. Proceeds are earmarked for agent-first brokerage and API-first prime brokerage infrastructure. Related blog posts reference a partnership with Broadridge to extend shareholder governance to tokenized US equities and the launch of LamaTrader on the Alpaca Connect marketplace.