Mochatrade raises $5.56 million to let Indian traders use rupees for U.S. stock perpetual futures

Raised to fund a rupee-based U.S. stock trading platform

Mochatrade, a startup that lets Indian users trade contracts tied to U.S. stock prices, has raised a total of $5.56 million. CoinFund led the latest round, with Coinbase Ventures and Nicky Montana of Zero Knowledge Ventures participating, the company said on Monday.

The platform is designed for Indian traders. Users can deposit money in Indian rupees through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a common payment system in India, and trade futures contracts linked to companies such as Nvidia, Tesla and Apple. Futures are contracts that let traders profit from a price going up or down without owning the underlying asset.

Mochatrade co-founder and chief product officer Chetan Manda told The Block that the platform is still in beta. More than 25,000 people are on a waitlist, and a public launch is expected within the coming weeks.

Key numbers

• Total funding raised: $5.56 million


• Latest round led by: CoinFund, with Coinbase Ventures and Nicky Montana (Zero Knowledge Ventures) participating


• Pre-seed round: $690,000, backed by Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund


• Y Combinator investment: $500,000, paid entirely in USDC (a stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar) on the Base network


• Seed round closed: July


• Waitlist size: more than 25,000


• Employees: 11, with teams split between New York and Bangalore

How the money was raised

Mochatrade raised the funds using post-money simple agreements for future equity, commonly called SAFEs. Manda said the company will not share a valuation because the round was not a priced equity deal.

The pre-seed round was announced in May without a dollar figure. The seed round closed in July, Manda said.

What makes the offering different

Manda said similar products already exist on crypto venues such as Hyperliquid and on Indian crypto exchanges including CoinDCX, Delta and CoinSwitch. But he argued they do not fit the profile of an Indian trader focused on U.S. stocks, because offshore platforms usually work with dollar stablecoin balances, while Indian exchanges market themselves around crypto assets.

He also said existing U.S.-stock apps for Indian users, such as INDmoney and Vested Finance, are built mainly for buying and holding shares, not for trading price moves with leverage. Mochatrade's model, he said, lets users fund in rupees, take long or short positions on U.S. stock prices with leverage, and withdraw in rupees.

The platform operates in India through ALSD Technologies Private Limited, which holds a FIU-IND registration, reference number VA00049752, according to Manda. FIU-IND is India's financial intelligence unit that oversees entities such as crypto exchanges under anti-money-laundering rules.

Plans and background

Mochatrade earns fees on trades done on the platform and has no plan to launch its own token at this time, Manda said. The new money will go toward trading technology and customer growth.

The company plans to add U.S. stock options, more assets and social trading features, subject to applicable laws and regulatory approvals.

Founders Chetan Manda, Utkarsh Sinha and Parth Maheshwari began building Mochatrade in April 2026 and joined Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch. The three met at the Indian Institute of Technology and have been friends for 10 years. Sinha was previously co-founder and CEO of Martian Wallet, which reached more than 2 million installs in over 50 countries before being acquired by Pontem Network last year. Manda previously worked in product management at Sprinklr, and Maheshwari worked at Adobe and Navi, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

What is confirmed

• Mochatrade raised $5.56 million in total funding, with CoinFund leading the latest round.


• The company operates through ALSD Technologies Private Limited, which holds FIU-IND registration VA00049752.


• The platform is in beta with over 25,000 waitlist signups and plans a public launch in the coming weeks.


• Funding was raised through SAFEs, with no valuation disclosed.

What is still unclear

• The article does not state when the public launch will happen in detail, only that it is expected within the coming weeks.


• Regulatory status for offering U.S. stock perpetual contracts to Indian users beyond the FIU-IND registration is not covered in the source.


• Launch dates for options, more assets and social trading features depend on regulatory approvals and were not specified.

Why this matters for crypto and trading platforms

The funding highlights a trend of crypto-native platforms building products for traditional assets. Mochatrade is mixing familiar Indian payment rails with crypto-style trading instruments, aiming to serve traders who want leverage on U.S. stocks without opening a U.S. brokerage account. Whether the offering stays within local rules will depend on how regulators treat such products.

What happens next

Mochatrade plans to expand its operations, engineering and growth teams. New features such as options and social trading are planned, subject to laws and regulatory approvals.

Sources

• The Block

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