Silicon Valley-based Alpaca, an API stock brokerage, has raised $3m in its pre-Series A round.
This investment comes alongside the launch of its commission-free trading platform which lets users use algorithms, trading bots and AI technology to help with investing and trading. The company has already received 4,000 accounts registered to its waiting list, according to the company.
Alpaca empowers traders to open up accounts, deposit money, and deploy their own algorithms or trading bots to automate their stock transactions. The platform is a registered securities broker which is regulated by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The round was supported by Global Brain, former MoneyForward CTO Chihiro Asano, D4V, fintech angel investor Eric Di Benedetto, Members of Berkeley Angel Network, Archetype, and former CTO ETRADE Financial Joshua S. Levine.
With this new burst of capital, the company has raised a total of $6m in funding since it was founded in 2015. Early last year, the company bagged a $1.7m investment from investors including D4V, IDEO and Genuine Startups.
Alpaca CEO and co-founder Yoshi Yokokawa said, ?Alpaca is going to transform stock trading by making available to retail traders all of the technology and science that has transformed institutional trading,p>
?In the beginning, individual coders who build algorithmic strategies will be able to connect those algorithms with our commission-free trading API and begin trading on our platform.
?Over time, well make algorithmic investment strategies available there to non-coder investors who want to manage their investment with customizable strategies such as automated asset allocation and rebalancing strategies, and theyll never have to manually execute a buy or sell order again.p>
The company has been working closely with algorithmic trading platform QuantConnect to support the development of its own automated platform.
Last week, Global Brain led the funding round of Thailand-based payments solution provider Omise. The company delivers a payment gateway which helps businesses with gain access to online payments, by giving them a suite of tools to create a personalised platform.
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