Mochatrade raises $5.5 million to offer US stock perpetuals to Indians
By Karan BansalTech Startups Correspondent, Peepals Tech
Representative image: sergeitokmakov / Pixabay
Y Combinator-backed Mochatrade has raised about $5.5 million in a seed round led by CoinFund to let Indian traders bet on US stocks through rupee-funded perpetual contracts.
What Happened
Mochatrade, a start-up building a platform for Indian traders to bet on US share prices, has raised about $5.5 million in seed funding led by CoinFund, a venture firm focused on crypto and blockchain companies, with Coinbase Ventures also taking part. The round was reported on October 26 and 27, 2026; co-founder Chetan Manda told one publication that it closed in July. The company, backed earlier by Y Combinator, lets users fund accounts in rupees through UPI and trade perpetual futures linked to more than 50 US stocks, with leverage of up to 50 times. Users do not own the underlying shares or receive dividends. The platform is in beta, and the company says its waitlist has passed 25,000 sign-ups.
Key Facts
- Funding: about $5.5 million seed round (some reports round it to $6 million), led by CoinFund.
- Other investors: Coinbase Ventures and Nicky Montana of Zero Knowledge Ventures; Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund backed an earlier pre-seed round of about $690,000.
- Structure: raised through SAFEs, so the company says there is no valuation to share.
- Product: perpetual futures on more than 50 US stocks, funded in rupees through UPI.
- Leverage: up to 50 times, according to reports on the product.
- Ownership: traders hold contracts that track prices, not the shares, and get no dividends.
- Status: in beta with a waitlist of over 25,000, according to the company; no public launch date given.
- Use of funds: building the trading engine and risk systems and growing among active Indian traders.
Why It Matters
Interest among Indian investors in US companies such as Nvidia, Apple and Tesla has grown quickly, and several Indian apps already let users buy US shares through the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme. Mochatrade is taking a different route. Instead of buying real shares abroad, its users would trade perpetual futures, a type of contract popular on crypto exchanges that tracks an asset's price, has no expiry date and can be traded with borrowed money.
The investor list shows where the idea comes from. CoinFund and Coinbase Ventures are both rooted in crypto, where perpetual contracts are the most traded product. Applying that model to US stocks and offering it to Indian retail traders in rupees is a bet that demand for fast, leveraged trading will carry over from crypto and Indian derivatives markets.
Leverage is the part every reader should understand. At 50 times leverage, a trader controls a position 50 times larger than the money put in. A price move of just 2 per cent against the position would wipe out the entire stake. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has repeatedly found that most individual traders in equity derivatives lose money: its July 2025 study put the share at over 91 per cent, with net losses of individual traders of Rs 1,05,603 crore in 2024-25. A product offering high leverage on foreign stocks is likely to draw close attention.
The company has not announced a public launch date, and the funding is meant to build risk systems before a wider rollout. How Mochatrade sets limits for users, how it handles payments and which rules it operates under will matter as much as the money raised.
| Detail | Buying US shares through an app | Mochatrade perpetuals |
|---|---|---|
| What you hold | Real shares, held abroad | A contract tracking the price |
| Dividends | Yes | No |
| Leverage | Usually none | Up to 50x, per reports |
| Funding | Remittance in dollars | Rupees through UPI |
| Expiry | None | None (perpetual) |
Impact
Short-term: The money lets Mochatrade build out its trading and risk systems while it stays in beta with a waitlist of over 25,000.
Long-term: If it launches widely, it would give Indian retail traders a new, highly leveraged way to bet on US stocks, and could test how Indian rules on derivatives and overseas investment apply to crypto-style products.
Who is affected: Indian retail traders interested in US stocks, existing apps that offer US share investing, crypto-focused investors, and Indian financial regulators.
Key Takeaway
Mochatrade's roughly $5.5 million seed round, led by CoinFund, backs a crypto-style product that would let Indians trade leveraged contracts on US stocks in rupees, a model with high potential losses for traders that is still in beta.
Questions and Answers
How much did Mochatrade raise and who invested?
Mochatrade raised about $5.5 million in a seed round led by CoinFund, with Coinbase Ventures and Nicky Montana of Zero Knowledge Ventures also investing. Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund backed an earlier pre-seed round of about $690,000.
What does Mochatrade offer?
It is building a platform where Indian users fund accounts in rupees through UPI and trade perpetual futures linked to more than 50 US stocks, with leverage of up to 50 times. Users do not own the shares or receive dividends.
What is a perpetual future?
A perpetual future is a contract that tracks the price of an asset and has no expiry date. It is commonly traded with borrowed money, which magnifies both gains and losses, and is widely used on crypto exchanges.
Is 50x leverage risky?
Yes. With 50 times leverage, a price move of 2 per cent against a position can wipe out the entire amount invested. Studies by India's market regulator show most individual derivatives traders lose money. This article is not investment advice.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
By Karan Bansal, Tech Startups CorrespondentCovers Tech Start-ups & Stories and more for Peepals Tech. All stories by Karan Bansal
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Karan Bansal is a pen name of the Peepals Global Editorial Team, which researches, fact-checks and publishes every story. The portrait is an illustration.
