Company:AlpacaDB

From HandWiki
AlpacaDB Inc.
TypePrivate [1]
IndustryFinancial technology [1]
Founded2015; 11 years ago (2015)[2]
FoundersYoshi Yokokawa and Hitoshi Harada [3]
Headquarters
San Mateo, California
,
United States[4][5]
Area served
Internationally (availability varies by region) [6]
Number of employees
200+ [7] (2025)
Websitealpaca.markets

AlpacaDB Inc. (herein referred to as "Alpaca") is an American financial technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley that provides an API for stock, options, fixed income, and crypto trading for institutions and individual traders to build financial applications. This functionality lets developers process know-your-customer (KYC) verification [12] as well as the trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), options, and cryptocurrencies. Alpaca also offers securities lending,[13] and provides brokerage functionality[14] and market data[15] that comply with regulatory[16] requirements.

History

Alpaca was co-founded in 2015 by Yoshi Yokokawa and Hitoshi Harada. In its early years the company focused on building technology for processing and analyzing large market data sets and developed an open-source time-series database called MarketStore before expanding into brokerage APIs.[3]

Yokokawa pivoted Alpaca in 2018 to a platform that would handle banking, security and regulatory complexities through APIs. Part of this pivot included the registration of Alpaca Securities LLC in March 2017, and FINRA approval occurring in 2018.[17][18][19]

Investor-backed funding began in 2018 with $3 million in pre-series A funding[20] and the company took part in Y Combinator's Winter 2019 (W19) batch.[21] By April 2025, the company had raised more than $170 million, backed by investors such as Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Social Leverage, and Y Combinator. During its Series C round in which it secured $52 million, Alpaca opened a New York office and expanded into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.[1][22]

Several Fintech firms and investment platforms have built their services on Alpaca’s APIs.[23] For example, Gotrade uses Alpaca’s Broker API providing users in many countries with access to access to stocks, exchange-traded funds, options and fixed income.[24] In 2025, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken used Alpaca’s Broker API to introduce U.S. stock and ETF trading to its users, enabling fractional shares with low-latency execution and no commission.[25]

The no-code platform Composer, employs Alpaca’s Trading API where users design, backtest, and run algorithmic strategies without writing code. In 2025, Alpaca also announced partnerships with regional investment apps such as ZAD, a Kuwait-based provider of Shariah-compliant investing services, and Manzil Invest USA, a platform with faith-aligned portfolios for American Muslims, both of which use the Broker API for trade execution and account infrastructure.[26]

Structure

AlpacaDB, Inc. is the primary corporate entity and the company operates globally through several subsidiaries such as:[27]

  • Alpaca Securities LLC ("Alpaca Securities"), a member FINRA/SIPC[18][28]
  • Alpaca Crypto LLC ("Alpaca Crypto"), a FinCEN registered money services business (NMLS# 2160858) for cryptocurrency services[29]
  • AlpacaJapan Co., Ltd, a Kinsho under Kanto Local Finance Bureau Director (#3024) and a JSDA member[27]

Alpaca is a member of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), and Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC).[30][31] Alpaca supports millions of brokerage accounts and has several hundred client partnerships in dozens of countries. The company holds several licenses with financial regulators including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Money Services Business (MSB), Securities Commission of the Bahamas, and Japan Securities Dealers Association (JSDA).[28][1][32]

Products

Alpaca's business model has several revenue streams including payment for order flow, commission fees, margin interest, cash management spreads, and API usage fees from enterprise clients.[12]

Alpaca's documentation lists five APIs for developers to interact with their platform and their GitHub site provides SDKs for a number of programming languages.[33][34]

The platform's underlying Order Management System (OMS), is said to handle order processing transactions in milliseconds.[35][36]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Alpaca raises $52M Series C to take its API brokerage platform to new markets". April 23, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/23/alpaca-a-developer-of-api-brokerage-platform-raises-52m-in-series-c/. 
  2. ↑ "Alpaca picks up $3m, alongside launch of its service". October 25, 2018. https://fintech.global/2018/10/25/alpaca-picks-up-3m-alongside-launch-of-its-service/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Prabhu, Abhinaya (January 15, 2026). "Japanese founders’ Alpaca zips $150M unicorn round to scale brokerage APIs worldwide". https://techfundingnews.com/japanese-founders-alpaca-zips-150m-unicorn-round-to-scale-brokerage-apis-worldwide/. 
  4. ↑ "ALPACA SECURITIES LLC". https://brokercheck.finra.org/firm/summary/288202. 
  5. ↑ "Alpaca". https://leadiq.com/c/alpaca/5a1d89bc2400002400631184. 
  6. ↑ "Countries Alpaca is Available In". Alpaca Markets. https://alpaca.markets/support/countries-alpaca-is-available. 
  7. ↑ "Alpaca Securities - About the company". https://tracxn.com/d/companies/alpaca-securities/__DPL-aW731hp1_4Nu15IlzWceYujWM4Ds-BLWnQN0EB8#about-the-company. 
  8. ↑ "BrokerCheck Report Alpaca Securities LLC CRD# 288202". https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_288202.pdf. 
  9. ↑ "Using Alpaca in Algo Trading: Everything You Should Know". December 19, 2023. https://www.composer.trade/learn/alpaca-trading. 
  10. ↑ "AlpacaJapan – Overview". https://sp-edge.com/companies/590324. 
  11. ↑ "REGISTER OF DIGITAL ASSET BUSINESSES". November 12, 2022. https://www.scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DARE-Register-as-at-12-November-2022.pdf. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Alpaca". https://sacra.com/c/alpaca/. 
  13. ↑ "Alpaca launches fully paid securities lending for US equities via API". May 19, 2025. https://finadium.com/alpaca-launches-fully-paid-securities-lending-for-us-equities-via-api. 
  14. ↑ "Alpaca, GoTyme Bank Partner to Introduce Digital Assets Trading in the Philippines". December 13, 2025. https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2025/12/256422-alpaca-gotyme-bank-partner-to-introduce-digital-assets-trading-in-the-philippines/. 
  15. ↑ "Does Alpaca have an API?". January 4, 2024. https://www.meshpay.com/blog/does-alpaca-have-an-api?utm_source. 
  16. ↑ Nasli, Adam (January 30, 2026). "Why choose Alpaca Trading". https://brokerchooser.com/broker-reviews/alpaca-trading-review. 
  17. ↑ Constine, Josh (November 8, 2019). "Alpaca nabs $6M for stocks API so anyone can build a Robinhood". https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/08/alpaca-stock-trading-api. Template:AI-retrieved source
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "In the Matter of the Continued Membership of Alpaca Securities LLC, (CRD No. 288202)". March 6, 2025. https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/SD-2436-Alpaca-03-06-2025.pdf. 
  19. ↑ "BrokerCheck Report Alpaca Securities LLC CRD# 288202". https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/firm/firm_288202.pdf. 
  20. ↑ "Fintech Startup Alpaca Raises $3M in Pre-Series A". October 24, 2018. https://www.finsmes.com/2018/10/fintech-startup-alpaca-raises-3m-in-pre-series-a.html. 
  21. ↑ "Meet 23 Companies from the YC W19 Batch Part 5". March 15, 2019. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/meet-23-companies-from-the-yc-w19-batch-part-5. 
  22. ↑ Dugdale, Mark (September 1, 2021). "Alpaca raises $50 million and announces crypto offering". https://fintech-intel.com/funding/alpaca-raises-50-million-and-announces-crypto-offering/. 
  23. ↑ Pugh, Alex (August 31, 2021). "API fintech Alpaca secures $50m in funding". https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/api-fintech-alpaca-secures-50m-in-funding. 
  24. ↑ Chmiel, Damian (October 26, 2025). "Gotrade Mobile Platform Targets 22 Million Southeast Asia Investors With Options Trading". https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/gotrade-mobile-platform-targets-22-million-southeast-asia-investors-with-options-tradubg/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. 
  25. ↑ Cernescu, Dragos (April 29, 2025). "Kraken expands into US securities via Alpaca partnership". https://thepaypers.com/crypto-web3-and-cbdc/news/kraken-expands-into-us-securities-via-alpaca-partnership?utm_source=chatgpt.com. 
  26. ↑ Faridi, Omar (July 24, 2025). "Fintech Platform Alpaca Enters New Partnerships to Expand Financial Access and Enhance Trading". https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2025/07/246656-fintech-platform-alpaca-enters-new-partnerships-to-expand-financial-access-and-enhance-trading/. 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Alpaca Markets Broker Review 2025". January 11, 2025. https://tradingfinder.com/brokers/alpaca-markets/. 
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 "Is Alpaca Trading Regulated?". February 10, 2023. https://brokerchooser.com/broker-reviews/alpaca-trading-review/alpaca-trading-regulation. 
  29. ↑ "Alpaca Crypto LLC NMLS ID: 2160858". https://nmlsconsumeraccess.org/EntityDetails.aspx/COMPANY/2160858. 
  30. ↑ "Manufacturing in the US, Building in Open Source… and more | E2154". July 21, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF7VDp6FzH4&t=3602s. 
  31. ↑ Eusterbrock, Nienke (August 15, 2025). "Alpaca gains OCC and FICC clearing memberships". https://posttrade360.com/news/infrastructure/alpaca-gains-occ-and-ficc-clearing-memberships/. 
  32. ↑ "REGISTER OF DIGITAL ASSET BUSINESSES". November 12, 2022. https://www.scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DARE-Register-as-at-12-November-2022.pdf. 
  33. ↑ "Alpaca". https://github.com/alpacahq. 
  34. ↑ Farn, Ted. "Alpaca". https://mcpmarket.com/server/alpaca. 
  35. ↑ Patel, Neal (November 30, 2021). "Alpaca unlocks 100x faster order processing with Redpanda". https://www.redpanda.com/blog/alpaca-100x-faster-order-processing#:~:text=At%20Alpaca%2C%20The%20OMS%20is,support%20various%20complex%20order%20types.. 
  36. ↑ Reed, Eric (March 9, 2025). "Alpaca Review 2025: Fees, Services and More". https://smartasset.com/investing/alpaca-trading. 



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