MochaTrade 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 allow eligible traders to take leveraged directional positions on assets such as Apple, Tesla, gold and the S&P 500 through a single mobile application.
The platform is designed to reduce reliance on traditional brokerage accounts, cross-border transfers and fragmented domestic offerings that often restrict access to global markets, while adhering to regulatory standards in its target jurisdictions.
MochaTrade’s markets are structured to operate continuously, with trades settling in real time rather than over one to two business days. This allows capital to be released immediately after positions are closed, enabling faster redeployment.
The company noted that the most liquid markets globally are based in the United States, yet retail participation across many regions remains limited. Domestic brokers in several countries offer restricted product access and limited leverage on United States equities, while funding overseas brokerage accounts can be time-consuming, costly and tax-intensive.
MochaTrade estimates that enabling leveraged access to United States equities for eligible global traders represents a market opportunity exceeding 100 billion dollars. In comparison, Robinhood, which primarily serves United States users, has a market capitalisation of approximately 80 billion dollars.
Utkarsh Sinha, Co-founder and CEO, MochaTrade, said, “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.”
He added, “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.”
MochaTrade was founded by Utkarsh Sinha, Chetan Manda and Parth Maheshwari, who bring experience across fintech, enterprise software and consumer technology.
Utkarsh Sinha holds a Computer Science degree from Columbia University and is also a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He previously worked at McKinsey & 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 Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, served as the youngest Director of Product at Sprinklr, where he led AI product initiatives across enterprise solutions.
Parth Maheshwari, also from IIT Guwahati, worked as an early engineer on Adobe Photoshop Web and later joined Navi to build financial infrastructure for a large user base.
The funds raised will be used to build the platform’s perpetual trading engine and risk management infrastructure, while also supporting regulatory and compliance efforts in target markets. A portion will be allocated to go-to-market initiatives targeting active retail traders in jurisdictions where the offering is legally permitted.
Investors highlighted the founding team’s experience and focus on compliant market access as key reasons for their investment.
Harj Taggar, Managing Partner, Y Combinator, said, “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.”
Nemil Dalal, Visiting Partner, Y Combinator, added, “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.”
David Gobaud, Pioneer Fund, said, “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.”
MochaTrade’s long-term objective is to expand access to global financial markets for eligible users across emerging economies, in compliance with local regulations in each jurisdiction.
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