MochaTrade, a global trading platform that intends to offer perpetual futures on United States stocks, commodities and indices to eligible users, has announced that it has raised an undisclosed pre-seed round from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund as part of Y Combinator’s Spring 2026 batch.
Subject to applicable regulatory approvals and laws, the platform aims to enable eligible traders to take leveraged directional views on assets such as Apple, Tesla, gold and the S&P 500 through a single mobile application.
It is designed to reduce reliance on traditional brokerage accounts, cross-border transfers and the patchwork of domestic products that typically limit access to global markets, whilst adhering to the highest standards of regulatory compliance in our target jurisdictions. .
MochaTrade’s markets are designed to operate continuously, with trades settling in real time rather than over one to two business days. This frees up capital the moment positions are closed, allowing it to be redeployed without delay.
The deepest and most liquid markets in the world are American, and retail access in many jurisdictions remains limited. Domestic brokers in many countries offer narrow product suites and limited leverage on US equities, while funding a US brokerage account from abroad can be slow, expensive and tax-heavy.
The company estimates that bringing leveraged United States stock access to eligible global traders represents a market opportunity of more than 100 billion dollars. By comparison, Robinhood, which mainly serves United States users, carries a market capitalisation of approximately 80 billion dollars.
“Non-US traders make up the largest retail derivatives market in the world, and yet they have limited access through domestic channels to the most liquid, most valuable equities on the planet. After scaling Martian Wallet to two million users, we saw the same pattern again and again, sophisticated traders with capital, conviction, and no clean way to express a view on United States assets through compliant pathways,” said Utkarsh Sinha, Co-founder and CEO of MochaTrade.
“Perpetual futures are the right financial primitive, but every product built on them so far has been designed for crypto natives, not traders. We are rebuilding the experience so that trading Apple feels like trading Apple. We are grateful to Harj, Nemil, the Y Combinator team, and Pioneer Fund for backing the mission this early,” he added.
MochaTrade was founded by IITians Utkarsh Sinha, Chetan Manda and Parth Maheshwari. They have worked across fintech, enterprise software and consumer technology.
Utkarsh Sinha holds a Computer Science degree from Columbia University and is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur. He previously worked at McKinsey and Company before co-founding Martian Wallet, which scaled to over two million installs and more than two billion dollars in transaction volume prior to a successful exit.
Chetan Manda, a graduate of IIT Guwahati, was the youngest Director of Product at Sprinklr (NYSE CXM), where he led AI product initiatives across the company’s flagship customer experience suite serving Fortune 100 enterprises.
Parth Maheshwari, also a graduate of IIT Guwahati, was an early engineer on Adobe Photoshop Web, building one of the most complex applications ever to run in the browser. He later joined Navi as a senior engineer to build core financial infrastructure serving millions of users.
The funds raised will be used to build the core perpetuals trading engine and risk infrastructure, and to complete the regulatory and compliance groundwork required to launch in target jurisdictions. A portion will also support go-to-market efforts among active retail traders in jurisdictions where the service is lawfully offered.
Investors said the founding team’s track record and focus on regulated market access were central to their decision.
“The MochaTrade team has done this before. They have built consumer financial products at scale, they understand derivatives at a deep level, and they are tackling a global market that has been structurally underserved for decades. This is exactly the kind of ambitious, infrastructure-heavy bet we love backing at YC,” said Harj Taggar, Managing Partner at Y Combinator.
“Utkarsh, Chetan, and Parth are exactly the kind of founders we back at YC, obsessed with their users and clear-eyed about the infrastructure they need to build. What sets MochaTrade apart is their commitment to the most regulated pathways for offering United States stock perpetuals, in full compliance with local law, to give eligible users a safe and compliant way to access this product,” added Nemil Dalal, Visiting Partner at Y Combinator.
“MochaTrade is the kind of bet we love at Pioneer Fund, a repeat technical founding team taking on entrenched financial infrastructure with a genuinely better product. Continuous markets and real-time settlement are not incremental improvements over the status quo, they are a step-change. We are excited to back this team,” said David Gobaud of Pioneer Fund.
MochaTrade’s long-term goal is to broaden access to global financial markets for eligible users, across emerging markets, in each case subject to applicable local laws and regulatory approvals.
About MochaTrade
MochaTrade is a global trading platform being built to offer perpetual futures on United States stocks, indices and commodities to eligible users, with markets designed to operate continuously and settle in real time.
The company is part of Y Combinator’s Spring 2026 batch and intends to launch first in developing markets, in each case subject to applicable local laws and regulatory approvals.
*Disclaimer: References to global access, markets, entry barriers, or platforms refer to MochaTrade’s efforts towards offering our product after obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals and complying with the law applicable (including anti-money laundering and tax laws) in MochaTrade's Tier-1 launch geographies where product access will be made available. MochaTrade’s product is currently at the stage of closed group testing and nothing in this Press Release shall be construed as a promise to enable trading on US stocks, commodities, or crypto assets in contravention of any applicable laws.
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