Mochatrade Raises $5.5 Million Seed Led by CoinFund to Sell US-Stock Perpetuals to Indian Traders Who Fund in Rupees

Mochatrade, a Y Combinator-backed startup building perpetual futures linked to US stocks for Indian retail traders, has raised a $5.5 million seed round (₹52.3 crore) led by CoinFund, with Coinbase Ventures and Zero Knowledge Ventures among the other investors, Inc42 reported on Oct. 27. No valuation was given, so no ownership stake or multiple can be worked out.

What the round does not settle is whether the product is live. The two available accounts differ.

What the company sells

According to Inc42, Mochatrade offers perpetual futures and price-tracking contracts on US stocks, cryptocurrencies, commodities and major indices. Accounts are funded through UPI, and balances, margins and profit and loss are tracked in rupees. Trading uses borrowed funds, which Inc42 notes amplifies both gains and losses, and revenue comes from trading fees.

Planned additions are contracts linked to select pre-IPO companies, US stock options and social trading, all subject to regulatory approvals. The waitlist holds more than 25,000 sign-ups.

Two accounts of the same company

A YesPress profile lists Mochatrade in Y Combinator's Spring 2026 batch with a pre-seed closed in March 2026 from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund. It is a third-party page and the details are self-reported.

Point	Inc42, Oct. 27	YesPress profile, updated Sept. 25
Round	$5.5 million seed, CoinFund lead	Pre-seed, amount undisclosed
Launch	No public launch date announced	Public launch in May 2026
Position multiple	Not stated	Up to 50x
Licences	Depends on approvals	None mentioned

The rounds can both be true, since a pre-seed in March can precede a seed. The launch status cannot: a product with a public launch in May does not have an unannounced launch date in October. One of the two is out of date or loosely worded.

The rule that sets the ceiling

Inc42 ties the business to SEBI's tighter futures-and-options rules, which limit weekly expiries to one benchmark index per exchange, increase contract sizes and raise margin requirements. The article says those changes weighed on FY26 activity and revenue at brokerages including Zerodha and Groww.

The demand case rests on overseas investing. Citing RBI data, Inc42 gives remittances for overseas equity and debt investment of $2.65 billion in FY26, against $1.51 billion in FY24.

1. FY241.51 $ billion
2. FY262.65 $ billion

Source: RBI data as cited by Inc42, accessed 2026-10-27

That series covers overseas investing across markets, not US stocks alone, and not derivatives. Inc42 adds $1.4 billion from April to July of FY27, including $344.6 million in July, up 121 percent year on year.

The team and the open questions

Chief executive Utkarsh Sinha co-founded the crypto wallet Martian in 2022. Inc42 says it reported more than 2 million installs and $2 billion in transaction volume, raised $3.6 million, and was acquired by Pontem. Inc42 describes Chetan Manda as Sprinklr's youngest director of product in 2025 and Parth Maheshwari as a former Adobe engineer who led payments and credit infrastructure at Navi.

Sinha told Inc42, "The appetite to trade is already here." The article itself says converting waitlist interest into active traders depends partly on the regulatory framework for its contracts.

The next fact that would resolve the story is a licence or a regulator's statement on the product. For other Indian rounds this month, see Matiks and BioStack.