Modern Brokerage Platform to Give Financial Markets Access

Alpaca is a modern brokerage platform that provides access to the financial markets through developer-friendly APIs. By using Alpaca API, businesses build investing applications and features for their services. Also, programmatic traders can develop algorithms to automate trading strategies.

Our mission is to open financial services to everyone on the planet

We are building a global de facto standard infrastructure for investing, which includes proprietary technology and regulatory setups, and in doing so, we will eventually serve everyone directly or indirectly through our partners, using Alpaca's infrastructure.

150 Businesses in 30 Different Countries with 25,000 MADs

Today, we offer global access to US stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies both in notional and fractional formats.

More than 150 businesses from 30 different countries such as Turkey, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, the US, Japan, Thailand, and Australia have launched their investing applications in the last three years.

Furthermore, we are supported by a strong developer community of 25,000 monthly active developers (“MAD”). We are actively working on new product offerings such as global stocks and fixed income.

Corresponding Self-Clearing Broker-Dealer in the US

Alpaca has several entities that have attained international regulatory approvals.

In 2018, Alpaca Securities LLC (Alpaca Securities) became a registered US broker-dealer with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (FINRA CRD#: 288202/SEC#: 8-69928).

Upon FINRA approval, Alpaca Securities became a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). SIPC protects customers against the loss of cash and securities. In 2023, we were thrilled to announce that we attained excess SIPC coverage. The excess coverage provides protection for any Alpaca Securities customer up to $30 million in securities and $1 million in cash and is covered at an aggregate limit of $150 million across all Alpaca Securities customer accounts.

After being approved by FINRA, we became classified as a Carrying Broker Dealer and Clearing Firm on a Fully-Disclosed and Omnibus basis. This allowed Alpaca Securities to clear and custody assets for our direct customers as well as other Broker-Dealers (US & International) and Registered Investment Advisors (US & International).

In 2023, Alpaca Securities was approved by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and in 2024 transitioned to fully self-clearing.

In 2022, Alpaca Crypto LLC (Alpaca Crypto) became a registered Money Services Business (MSB) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) (NMLS # 2160858).

AlpacaX Crypto Ltd. (AlpacaX Crypto) and AlpacaX Securities Ltd. (AlpacaX Securities) are registered with the Securities Commission of the Bahamas. AlpacaX Crypto, as a Digital Asset Business (Registration number 208648 B), and AlpacaX Securities to conduct securities business (Registration number 208649 B).

AlpacaJapan Co., Ltd. (Alpaca Japan) has a securities license with the Japan Securities Dealers Association (JSDA) (Registration Number. 3024).

Initially Started as a Database and Machine Learning Company

Alpaca initially started as a database and machine learning company in 2015, which built technology to run and process large sets of market data for prediction purposes primarily using various types of deep neural net models. For our machine learning business, our client base included enterprise financial institutions and trading companies.

During this time, we found that there were no database products designed for financial time-series data. We built a new database called MarketStore specifically designed and optimized for this type of data, and made it open source as it should be valuable for other traders and quants in the community.

We have been and will always be a technology company. We solve problems by building products and technology ourselves instead of relying on the legacy stack that other companies may purchase from outside vendors.

Yoshi Yokokawa

Co-Founder & CEO

Hitoshi Harada

Co-Founder & CPO

Meet Alpaca's Co-Founders

Yoshi has a financial services background and started his career in 2004 at Lehman Brothers' Securitization team. Afterwards, he day-traded full-time and co-founded a couple of software development businesses. You can see him speaking on the Fintech Underground podcast series and on X.

Hitoshi comes with a deep technology background and skillset. He was a Lead Architect at Silicon Valley's first parallel distributed database company, Greenplum (now acquired and a part of EMC). Prior to this, he started his career in 2002 by building Japan's biggest online travel agencies' data infrastructures. He is a frequent open-source contributor and is known for his Windows-function feature on PostgreSQL and is on Github and X.

Alpaca is headquartered in California, USA, and is a globally fully remote distributed company with 150 members in 25 countries. Alpaca is led by a leadership team that brings diverse experience from tech companies and financial institutions.

US$120 Million Funded by Leading Global Investors

Alpaca has raised US$120 million in capital from leading fintech investors globally such as:

We Love Our Company Name Alpaca!

We named ourselves Alpaca because we felt alpacas are approachable, lively, memorable, cute, and funny.

When Yoshi and Hitoshi were brainstorming a company name, they wanted to come up with something that is warm, lively, and exists in true nature like animals or fruits. They felt that both database and financial services, where Alpaca is situated, only evoked a cold, machine-like and number-oriented environment.

During this search for either animal or fruit-based names, they happened to be driving around Woodside in Silicon Valley to see what Masa Son's US$100 million house looked like. Although Masa's house was under construction, they happened to see tens of alpacas as pets in the yard of the gorgeous land right nextdoor.

After observing these alpacas cautiously and looking at them, Yoshi and Hitoshi made up their mind to name the company after them. They felt that alpacas symbolize success, considering many wealthy owners choose to have them as pets in California, especially being so far away from their native origin of South America. Finally, the word “alpaca” starts with the first alphabet character of both English (“a”) and Japanese (“あ”) and has the sound of “p” This sound also is a hit in consumer brands like Japanese snacks of Pocky and Toppo.

We love the company name Alpaca, and all of us here continue to do our best to stay true to the feeling alpacas carry out.

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Disclosures

Brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities, member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc.

Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.

Brokerage services are provided to customers who can write automated investment code and self-direct their own investments. Alpaca brokerage services are only provided to customers who agree to electronically sign agreements and agree to receive messages, confirmations, and statements electronically. Is Alpaca right for me?

This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies, or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.

The Paper Trading API is offered by AlpacaDB, Inc. and does not require real money or permit a user to transact in real securities in the market. Providing use of the Paper Trading API is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities, securities derivative or futures products of any kind, or any type of trading or investment advice, recommendation or strategy, given or in any manner endorsed by AlpacaDB, Inc. or any AlpacaDB, Inc. affiliate and the information made available through the Paper Trading API is not an offer or solicitation of any kind in any jurisdiction where AlpacaDB, Inc. or any AlpacaDB, Inc. affiliate (collectively, "Alpaca") is not authorized to do business.

You should know that the use or granting of any third party access to your account information or place transactions in your account at your direction is solely at your risk. Alpaca does not warrant against loss of use or any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses to you caused by your assent, expressed or implied, to a third party accessing your account or information, including access provided through any other third party apps, systems, or sites.

Market prices, data and other information available through Alpaca are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. System response and account access times may vary due to a variety of factors, including trading volumes, market conditions, system performance, and other factors. A more complete description of the impact these factors may have can be found in our risks of automated trading systems section.

All investments involve risk and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Keep in mind that while diversification may help spread risk it does not assure a profit, or protect against loss, in a down market. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.

There are risks unique to automated trading algorithms that you should know about and plan for. You should setup a method or system of continuous monitoring or alerting to let you know if there is a mechanical failure, such as connectivity issues, power loss, a computer crash, or system quirk. You should also monitor for instances where your automated trading system experiences anomalies that could result in errant, missing, or duplicated orders. A more complete description of these and other risks can be found in our FAQ section.

Conditional orders may have increased risk as a result of their reliance on trigger processing, market data, and other internal and external systems. Such orders are not sent to the market until specified conditions are met. During that time, issues such as system outages with downstream technologies or third parties may occur. Conditional orders triggering near the market close may fail to execute that day. Furthermore, our executing partner may impose controls on conditional orders to limit erroneous trades triggering downstream orders. Alpaca Securities may not always be made aware of such changes to external controls immediately, which may lead to some conditional orders not being executed. As such, it is important to monitor conditional orders for reasonability. Conditional orders are “Not Held” orders whose execution instructions are on a best efforts basis upon being triggered. Furthermore, conditional orders may be subject to the increased risks of stop orders and market orders outlined above. Given the increased potential risk of using conditional orders, the client agrees that Alpaca Securities cannot be held responsible for losses, damages, or missed opportunity costs associated with market data problems, systems issues, and user error, among other factors. By using conditional orders the client understands and accepts the risks outlined above. Alpaca Securities encourages leveraging the use of Paper accounts to become more comfortable with the intricacies associated with these orders.

ETFs can entail risks similar to direct stock ownership, including market, sector, or industry risks. Some ETFs may involve international risk, currency risk, commodity risk, and interest rate risk. Trading prices may not reflect the net asset value of the underlying securities.

All accounts are opened as limited purpose margin accounts. You should know that margin trading involves interest charges and risks, including the potential to lose more than deposited or the need to deposit additional collateral in a falling market. Before using margin, customers must determine whether this type of trading strategy is right for them given their specific investment objectives, experience, risk tolerance, and financial situation. For more information please see Alpaca's Margin Disclosure Statement and Margin Agreement. These disclosures contain information on Alpaca Securities's lending policies, interest charges, and the risks associated with margin accounts.

Any fee you pay is based on the specific transaction and not the value of your account. In general, we do not charge a commission for trades. However, certain arrangements with authorized business partners may preclude commission free trades by Alpaca Securities. If your account is established via an authorized business partner, please refer to the fee schedule provided through your authorized partner’s website or platform. Customers of Alpaca Securities should refer to the Alpaca Securities Brokerage Fee Schedule. Please ensure you review the fees and costs identified on any confirmations and statements you receive.

Cryptocurrency is highly speculative in nature, involves a high degree of risks, such as volatile market price swings, market manipulation, flash crashes, and cybersecurity risks. Cryptocurrency is not regulated or is lightly regulated in most countries. Cryptocurrency trading can lead to large, immediate and permanent loss of financial value. You should have appropriate knowledge and experience before engaging in cryptocurrency trading. For additional information please click here.

Cryptocurrency services are made available by Alpaca Crypto, a FinCEN registered money services business (NMLS # 2160858), and a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Alpaca Crypto is not a member of SIPC or FINRA. Cryptocurrencies are not stocks and your cryptocurrency investments are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC. Please see the Disclosure Library for more information.