loading
loading
Mochatrade has raised $5.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by CoinFund The startup aims to provide Indian traders access to contracts linked to US stocks and other assets through UPI-funded accounts The Y Combinator-backed startup will use the capital to build its trading and risk infrastructure, with its waitlist crossing 25,000 sign-ups Fintech startup MochaTrade, which offers US Stock tokens trading platform for Indian traders, announced the raise of $5.5 Mn (₹52.3 Cr) in a seed funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Zero Knowledge Ventures, among others. The startup will use the fresh capital to bolster its trading engine and risk infrastructure and expand its reach among active Indian traders. Founded in 2026 by Utkarsh Sinha, Chetan Manda and Parth Maheshwari, Mochatrade is building a trading platform that allows Indian retail traders and global investors to trade perpetual futures and price-tracking contracts linked to US stocks, cryptocurrencies, commodities and major indices. Its waitlist has crossed 25,000 sign-ups, although it is yet to announce a public launch date. The platform is expected to allow users to fund their accounts through UPI and track balances, margins and profit and loss (P&L) in Indian rupees (INR). The platform’s perpetual futures contracts will allow traders to take long or short positions based on their expectations of price movements, without owning the underlying assets. Unlike conventional futures contracts, these instruments have no fixed expiry date. Mochatrade will also offer leveraged trading, allowing users to take larger positions with less upfront capital. However, leverage can amplify losses as well as gains. The startup plans to earn revenue through trading fees and eventually introduce contracts linked to select pre-IPO companies, US stock options and social trading features, subject to regulatory approvals. “India traded $1.9 Tn in options premium turnover last year. The appetite to trade is already here. But when Indians want to trade the US market, the product still feels foreign,” said Sinha, CEO of Mochatrade. Sinha previously cofounded crypto wallet Martian in 2022, which recorded more than 2 Mn installs and $2 Bn in transaction volume. Martian raised $3.6 Mn from Race Capital, Superscrypt and Jump Crypto before being acquired by Lightspeed-backed Pontem. Manda became Sprinklr’s youngest director of product in 2025, while Maheshwari worked on Photoshop for the web at Adobe before leading payments and credit infrastructure at Navi. Mochatrade is entering the market as Indian investors increasingly look overseas for exposure to global assets, particularly US stocks. According to RBI data, Indian residents remitted $2.65 Bn overseas for equity and debt investments in FY26, up from $1.51 Bn in FY24. Remittances reached $1.4 Bn between April and July FY27, with July alone accounting for $344.6 Mn, a 121% year-on-year increase. These figures cover overseas equity and debt investments across markets, rather than US stocks alone. At the same time, regulatory changes are reshaping India’s domestic trading market. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has tightened futures and options (F&O) rules to curb excessive speculation and protect retail investors. Measures include limiting weekly expiries to one benchmark index per exchange, increasing contract sizes and tightening margin requirements. The changes have weighed on trading activity and revenue at several brokerage platforms, including Zerodha and Groww, during FY26. Against this backdrop, Mochatrade is betting that demand for global market exposure will create an opportunity for a trading platform built around Indian users. Its ability to convert waitlist interest into active traders will depend on its product experience, risk controls and the regulatory framework governing the contracts it plans to offer.
document fetched 2026-10-28 02:53 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/mochatrade-raises-5-5-mn-to-build-a-us-stock-trading-platform-for-indian-traders