Alpaca Secured $52m In Series C: We Discuss The Future With CEO, Yoshi Yokokawa

In this Leaders InFocus conversation, we speak with Yoshi Yokokawa, co-founder and CEO of Alpaca, having just secured $52m in funding, we discuss the future. The company recently awarded Best Algorithmic Trading Platform USA 2025 and FinTech Leader of the Year USA 2025. Founded with a mission to make financial services accessible to everyone on the planet, Alpaca has established itself as a leading API-first brokerage infrastructure provider with a global developer community and reach in over 30 countries.

Yokokawa shares how Alpaca’s deep-tech DNA, born from financial services and computer vision roots, evolved into a platform that now powers brokerages worldwide. From navigating the challenges of rapid scaling and regulation to building real-time market data systems like MarketStore and advocating for a data-first, culture-conscious approach, Alpaca represents a new kind of fintech, one built for the programmable financial age. In this interview, Yoshi reflects on Alpaca’s journey, the philosophy behind its API-first model, and its ambition to create a truly open financial ecosystem.

Brett

Congratulations on your recent awards, both personally and for alpaca, reflecting on your journey from inception to becoming a leading innovator in the brokerage space. What key milestones and turning points have been the most pivotal in defining Alpaca’s path to success?

Yoshi 

I think, the biggest turning point probably was, there are many. But one thing that I always think about is how we had to go through the pandemic. Environment forced us to be full remote company, and then, it really forced us to build a lot of proprietary systems internally more than we had expected.

Brett

Yes, the pandemic was indeed a fascinating time for innovation, wasn't it? It compelled many businesses to reassess their historical practices and methods. Coming out the other side as stronger and more focused businesses is a testament to your leadership? Could you share the story behind the development of MarketStore and explain how it has transformed your approach to managing high-performance market data?

Yoshi 

MarketStore is really more coming from my co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Hitoshi Harada. He was the lead architect at the parallel distributed database company called Greenplum, which was acquired by EMC, seven or eight years ago. Hitoshi was dealing with the big data, in fact, we were actually working on deep learning, convolutional neural nets and other types of neural nets back then. For us to do that, we had to come up with time series based database that can handle specific unstructured data, like time series data. So the database was something that we had to built for that AI business purpose. And then, we realised that the database can be extremely useful when we had to deal with the trading related transactional data when we started this API-first brokerage. So really the reason why we started building this time series data specific database at the time was because it didn't exist back then. This ultimately led to us to create amazing IPs and then to an amazing team as well as developer community.

Brett 

I guess part of the thing that separates you guys is in the early days was to do an API first approach?

Yoshi 

Our perspective on the API reflects the evolution of how people communicate and interact with the world. Looking back hundreds of years, we relied on face-to-face interactions, whether buying stocks or vegetables; everything was done in person. Then came the telephone, transforming these exchanges into phone conversations. If you wanted to make a purchase, you did so over the phone, eliminating the need for face-to-face meetings. Following that, the internet emerged, introducing web browsers that allowed for communication without direct interaction. With mobile devices, everything became portable, creating numerous user experiences. We pondered what would come next after the mobile device user experience, envisioning humans becoming more adept at building automation, similar to the AI agents we use today. About six years ago, we speculated on the future following human interaction with mobile devices, and we identified those agents and programmes as the next step. Hence, an interface was needed for these agents and programmes, which brought about the API. After considering the advancements following mobile devices, we recognised that Robinhood had excelled in this domain; we felt we couldn't surpass what they achieved. Yet, we had to think about what would come next after Robinhood, which ultimately pointed us towards the API. This is why we decided to focus on APIs.

Brett 

When you put it like that, it sounds so simple, that evolution. But, you know, everything's obvious in hindsight, right?

Yoshi 

Yeah, exactly. So when you look back, you feel you can see the logic of it.

Brett 

To be there at the forefront, to go; “Well, this is the next logical thing”. You saw that future, which brings me to your commitment to technological innovation at Alpaca through the evolving competitive landscape and financial services. Was it always going to be financial services?

Yoshi 

Hitoshi and I did a couple other projects and companies. It wasn't necessarily in the financial services. It was always, always about deep tech. The first company that we did together was actually in the computer vision segment. Computer vision, at that time, the University of Toronto published a paper about deep learning; I think it was like in 2012 or 2013. Well before the LLM and the AI came out, that period marked a boom, during which a great deal of development in computer vision began to occur. We worked on a computer vision product, and we sold it. However, given my background in financial services, we constantly pondered how to leverage this deep tech, which should be inherently scalable, as that's the essence of software. This simple line of thought inspired us to explore opportunities within the FinTech sector. Then, of course, we observed Robinhood, who I deemed a source of inspiration; they did exceedingly well in merging advanced technology with financial services, which didn't appear to be traditional financial services at all. I believe their approach was truly innovative, which encouraged us to delve into the brokerage and investing spaces within FinTech. So that's how we transitioned into the API brokerage realm.

Brett 

Financial services is hugely competitive. How have you delivered on your strategy and growth?

Yoshi 

I believe every stage of a company comes with its own set of challenges. At the very beginning, there’s the drive to find product-market fit. We had to figure out what comes next and learn to stay laser-focused. It wasn’t about being “better than everyone else,” but rather being the best at something specific—even if it was a small niche. That discipline allowed us to carve out a clear position in the market.

After securing product-market fit, we moved on to stabilising the business, then pursuing growth and even hyper-growth. Along the way, I learned just how cyclical this industry can be. The pandemic, fluctuating interest rates, and shifts in capital availability all had a direct impact on our strategy. If venture capital is abundant one month but scarce the next, it forces you to quickly decide how to adapt.

What I took away from these challenges is the need for rapid response: seeing the world as it is (not how you wish it were) and reacting without delay. That often means removing emotional barriers—basically silencing that little voice in your head that says, “Wait, maybe next week!”—and taking decisive action as soon as possible.

We can’t predict the future, but at least we can stay ready for whatever’s about to happen. In my experience, that’s where our strategy truly lies: being prepared to shift gears instantly and execute well. So, rather than obsess over perfect foresight, we focus on reading the market’s signals quickly, breaking through any internal hesitation, and going all-in on what we need to do next. That approach has been key to our growth so far.

Brett 

So with a global footprint spanning over 30 countries, how have you managed to balance between rapid expansion and maintaining a seamless, high quality service? There are many examples businesses that expand  rapidly only to leave a vacuum behind them damaging the core.

Yoshi 

As everyone probably agrees, there’s always a skew toward one side or the other when it comes to business strategy. It’s like a pendulum swinging between “let’s push for rapid expansion” and “let’s step back, reorganize, and pay down our debt.” These extremes happen more often in the earlier stages of a company, when resources are limited and priorities can shift dramatically. As the organization matures, the swing gradually narrows because we learn how to balance these competing demands.

Early on, if you don’t have enough resources, you simply can’t pursue both aggressive growth and conservative debt management at the same time. The real challenge is understanding the broader environment—figuring out which direction the market is nudging you toward and focusing there. Later, when you have more resources, it becomes easier to split your attention and balance multiple objectives.

There were times when we took on significant debt to fuel growth and, at other points, we became more conservative, scaling back on expansion. Both approaches can be valid as long as they align with what’s happening in the world—if there’s a mismatch between market conditions and your chosen strategy, that can lead to major problems.

Ultimately, it’s the CEO’s responsibility to decide which side of the pendulum to lean toward and where to set the focus and priorities for the organization. That judgment call—determining how much “skew” is appropriate and at what moment—is critical for navigating each stage of the company’s development.

Brett 

Which strategies have proven most effective in navigating the complexities of diverse regulatory environments, ensuring compliance and operational efficiency?

Yoshi 

As founders, we need to be hands-on and fairly knowledgeable about compliance and operational efficiency. If we start outsourcing too much or depending heavily on external experts, we can lose control and visibility, which becomes a real obstacle. That’s why it’s crucial to understand enough about compliance and operational requirements to question what other people, no matter how experienced—are telling us.

Tools like ChatGPT make it easier to quickly grasp about 80 to 85 percent of a new topic. Armed with that baseline understanding, we can ask better questions and challenge professionals on whether their advice is truly relevant or correct for our situation. Ultimately, this strategy of staying curious, and learning enough to engage meaningfully in areas outside our core expertise, has been key to making informed decisions and maintaining efficiency.

Brett 

So, at Alpaca, you have developed a strong developer community with over 25,000 active monthly users. What initiatives are you taking to foster that innovation, to further engage this community?

Yoshi 

We created a developer community when we started this API broker-dealer precisely because our product targets developers, who have their own unique characteristics. Many developers, for example, block ads by default and tend to distrust promotional content, so we realized early on that we needed to understand their mindset. Our focus is on real content and meaningful contributions: offering tools, educational resources, and intellectual insights that developers truly find helpful. We produce YouTube videos, write blog posts, and create code snippets they can copy and paste, similar to what successful API-based companies like Stripe do in the payment space. Rather than pushing ads or asking developers to “come join us,” we want to be genuinely useful to them, and that principle continues to guide our strategy.

Brett 

So as Alpaca has evolved, what role has your organisational structure played in driving both technological progress and business growth?

Yoshi 

When I think about culture, I view it more as the “output” rather than the “input.” In other words, we deliberately set core values, being curious, having empathy, and staying accountable, then make sure everyone actually practices them day to day. If nobody follows the values, they lose all meaning. So the “input” is defining those values and consistently acting on them; the resulting culture is what emerges from that process.

Because of our global team, spanning dozens of countries, we’re constantly interacting with different norms and perspectives. Being curious and empathetic helps us better understand one another’s context and communicate effectively, which in turn removes barriers when it comes to scaling our business. We’re open to meeting new partners and clients, both virtually and in person, and that flexibility has fueled our growth.

On the technology side, working with a diverse, distributed group means we can leverage each region’s strengths. Some teams excel at backend detail work; others are more strategy-focused. This hiring approach helps us build products quickly and efficiently. In the end, the culture we’ve cultivated, curiosity, empathy, and accountability, has proven vital for both technological progress and business expansion.

Brett 

Surprisingly, even in today’s globalised business landscape, many senior leaders, even at prominent international organisations, remain firmly rooted in their home culture. That’s why it’s always refreshing to hear a perspective centred on openness and understanding, aiming to harness the best from every culture and let that guide the way forward.

Yoshi 

I think that’s precisely why we make a point of stripping away nuance and qualitative gestures, they tend to create confusion and miscommunication across different cultures. When we rely too much on qualitative cues, things become vague. Instead, we intensify our focus on data and quantitative measures because numbers are universal in any country. Data offers a clear, binary perspective that everyone can understand. As a result, we always ask for concrete metrics rather than relying on hints or subjective impressions. That approach helps avoid misunderstandings stemming from regional differences; what sounds straightforward to someone in the U.S. might be interpreted entirely differently in Europe or Latin America. By emphasising quantifiable information, we remove ambiguity and ensure we’re all on the same page.

Brett 

What's your vision for Alpaca future in shaping the Financial Services landscape, and what steps are you taking to realise that vision?

Yoshi 

A company should have a purpose. Our mission is to open financial services for everyone on the planet. We focus on all 8.5 billion people, and we use the word “open” very deliberately because it’s objective, things are either open or closed. We avoid terms like “democratised,” which can carry emotional undertones. By sticking to a clear, binary concept of open versus closed, we stay rooted in our core goal. That’s really why Alpaca exists.

On a personal level, I’ve experienced this issue firsthand, growing up between Japan and the United States. Financial services I could access in the U.S. weren’t readily available in Japan. The same frustration happens worldwide, simply because of where you’re born or where you live, your options can be drastically limited. I see that as unfair, and I want Alpaca to help reduce this disparity by opening financial access as widely as possible.

We can’t do it alone, though, because each culture and region relates to money differently. That’s why we position ourselves as an infrastructure provider, enabling local players in each country or market segment to build and deliver services quickly and affordably. We handle the “boring” mid-office and back-office tasks—like custody and compliance, so they don’t have to. This approach supports our primary reason for existing: to open financial services to everyone on the planet. If we succeed, I believe we’ll make the world at least a little bit better, and that belief drives everything we do.

Brett 

Open financial infrastructure.

Yoshi 

Yes, we avoid using the word “democratisation” because, while it may sound appealing in Western contexts, it can be problematic elsewhere. That’s why we specifically say “open.” For instance, if someone writes “democratise,” I’ll suggest substituting “open” instead to respect different cultural perspectives. We have employees from many backgrounds, and certain words can carry unexpected nuances or even offend. By using “open,” we stay objective and inclusive, making sure everyone feels comfortable. That’s been our policy within the company, and it reflects our aim to communicate in a way that transcends cultural barriers.

Brett 

Thank you, Yoshi, for such an amazing insight into Alpaca and your perspective on opening up the world to financial inclusion through infrastructure. Once again congratulations on your awards

Brett Hurll, Executive Editor at Global Financial Market Review, draws on over 35 years of international experience across technology and finance sectors, providing readers with sharp analysis and unique perspectives on emerging trends, market shifts, and the complex interplay between global business and political dynamics. His extensive background and senior leadership role position him as a trusted voice on financial markets and economic developments.  If you have an interesting editorial reach out to our team at editoral@gfmreview.com