Alpaca raises $135M to expand AI brokerage for tokenized assets

Alpaca, a US-based brokerage infrastructure provider, raised $135 million in equity led by Peak XV to expand its AI-driven platform for tokenized assets, bringing total new financing to $435 million including debt.

"We are building the infrastructure layer that lets any fintech offer both traditional equities and tokenized assets through a single API," Yoshi Yokokawa, chief executive officer of Alpaca, said.

The round included participation from Elefund, Opera Tech Ventures — the venture arm of BNP Paribas Group — and Unbound. Alpaca also secured roughly $300 million in debt financing. The company now supports more than 10 million brokerage accounts across 40-plus countries, with assets under custody surpassing $1.5 billion for tokenized equities alone. Revenue has doubled year-over-year for three consecutive years, and monthly active API users grew nearly fourfold in six months.

The capital will accelerate Alpaca's agent-first brokerage infrastructure, allowing financial companies to build investing products across traditional and onchain markets. The involvement of BNP Paribas's venture arm points to growing institutional appetite for bridging conventional finance with tokenized securities, a market that could reshape how retail and institutional investors access real-world assets.

Tokenized Assets Draw Institutional Capital

Alpaca's latest financing follows a $150 million Series D in January 2026 that valued the company at $1.15 billion. The new equity round extends that valuation without an updated figure, though the additional debt component gives the firm roughly $435 million in total firepower. The structure matters: equity brings strategic guidance from Peak XV and banking expertise from Opera Tech Ventures, while debt funds infrastructure scaling without immediate dilution.

The company has been laying regulatory groundwork across multiple jurisdictions. It acquired an IFSCA-regulated broker-dealer and payment service provider in India's GIFT City, plus regulated entities in the UK and Europe that provide passporting rights across 30 EEA countries. These moves allow Alpaca to offer cross-border access to equities and tokenized assets — a capability that traditional brokerages have been slow to replicate.

Competitors Face Pressure as Alpaca Scales

Alpaca competes with brokerage infrastructure providers including publicly traded Robinhood Markets Inc. and private players such as DriveWealth. Its self-clearing model differentiates it from peers that rely on third-party clearing, potentially improving take rates and reducing per-trade costs. For a platform processing millions of API-driven trades, those savings compound quickly.

The company's focus on agent-first design — where AI algorithms execute trades autonomously — positions it for the next wave of fintech adoption. Tokenized equities, which represent traditional stocks as onchain tokens, require infrastructure that can handle both legacy settlement rails and blockchain-based transfers. Alpaca's API layer abstracts that complexity, letting developers build products without managing regulatory or clearing functions themselves.

For investors tracking the fintech sector, Alpaca's growth metrics — revenue doubling annually, 10 million accounts, $1.5 billion in tokenized equity custody — suggest the market for AI-native brokerage infrastructure is expanding rapidly. The involvement of BNP Paribas through Opera Tech Ventures provides a traditional banking endorsement that could accelerate enterprise adoption. Competitors lacking self-clearing capabilities or multi-jurisdiction licenses may face pressure to consolidate or invest heavily in compliance infrastructure.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.