Mochatrade Raises $5.56M for U.S. Stock Perpetuals

Mochatrade has raised $5.56 million in total funding to develop a platform offering Indian users leveraged perpetual contracts linked to U.S. stocks, with rupee deposits and withdrawals handled through UPI. The Block reported on October 26 that CoinFund led the company’s seed round, joined by Coinbase Ventures and Nicky Montana of Zero Knowledge Ventures.

The financing is aimed at a product that gives traders market exposure to selected U.S. equities without requiring conventional cross-border share purchases. Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund had previously backed Mochatrade in a $690,000 pre-seed round.

CoinFund-led round backs UPI-funded U.S. stock perpetuals

Mochatrade’s proposition is built around local payment access and derivatives trading. According to its Y Combinator profile, Indian users can deposit and withdraw rupees via UPI before trading leveraged perpetual contracts tied to U.S. stocks.

CoinFund’s participation places the company among startups attempting to package offshore market exposure in a format tailored to Indian payment rails. Coinbase Ventures and Montana participated alongside the lead investor, while the disclosed $5.56 million figure includes the earlier pre-seed financing.

The structure matters because the service is not presented as a route to directly buy U.S.-listed shares. Instead, traders take positions in perpetual contracts whose value is tied to the underlying equities.

Derivatives, not share ownership

Mochatrade names Nvidia, Tesla and Apple among the U.S. stocks available through its contracts. Those instruments are leveraged perpetual derivatives, not shares, providing price exposure without custody or ownership of the underlying U.S. securities. A user does not own the associated share or need to open a U.S. brokerage account, according to the company’s Y Combinator listing.

Users can deposit and withdraw rupees through UPI while trading the contracts, without funding a U.S. brokerage relationship.

Beta waitlist and public-launch timetable

Mochatrade was operating in beta and had more than 25,000 people on its waitlist as of October 26, according to The Block. The company expected a public launch in the coming weeks at that point.

The waitlist indicates early interest, but it does not measure funded accounts or active traders. A public release would test whether that early pipeline converts into users of the beta product’s UPI-funded derivatives service.

The disclosed capital is set to support that transition. Mochatrade said it would spend the funds on trading technology and customer growth, positioning the round as both product infrastructure financing and an expansion of its user-acquisition effort.

FIU-IND registration and planned expansion

Mochatrade operates in India through ALSD Technologies Private Limited, which the company says holds registration with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU-IND, as a virtual digital-asset service provider, The Economic Times reported.

The registration concerns anti-money-laundering obligations; it does not constitute approval for every trading product offered by Mochatrade. Any expansion of the service remains subject to the applicable legal and regulatory framework.

Mochatrade has said it plans to add U.S. stock options, more assets and social-trading features. The Block reported that those proposals require applicable laws and regulatory approvals, while the new funding is focused immediately on trading technology and customer growth.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.