Alpaca has completed its acquisition of WealthKernel, enabling it to offer investment and wealth management services in the UK and EU
In parallel, Alpaca is launching European equities trading, starting with Germany’s Xetra exchange, with additional markets to follow
Alpaca is expanding into Europe and entering its next phase of global growth. Today, we’re announcing two key milestones.
We have completed our acquisition of European fintech WealthKernel, which will now operate as Alpaca Europe, establishing a regulated presence in the UK and EU.
Separately, we’re beginning the rollout of equities trading across European markets, enabling partners to offer cross-border investing through a single integration.
Alpaca Completes Acquisition of WealthKernel
With the acquisition complete, Alpaca Europe operates on an established regulatory and operational foundation, built on WealthKernel’s licensed brokerage infrastructure.
WealthKernel brings established UK and EU licenses, providing Alpaca with a fully authorized framework to operate as a broker-dealer in the region and expand its wealth management and investment product capabilities across Europe.
This includes local brokerage and custody infrastructure, as well as tax-advantaged products such as ISAs and SIPPs. Combined with Alpaca’s API-driven platform, this creates a unified infrastructure layer for financial institutions and fintechs building investment products across Europe.
“Completing the WealthKernel acquisition is a major step in Alpaca’s expansion into Europe,” said Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO and Co-Founder of Alpaca. By combining Alpaca’s US-headquartered, fully licensed and self-clearing brokerage infrastructure with our licensed operations in the UK and EU, we’re making it easier for companies to build and scale investment products across regions and reducing the complexity of cross-border investing.”
Leading European financial institutions are supporting Alpaca’s expansion. BNP Paribas, through its venture arm Opera Tech Ventures, which participated in Alpaca’s recent Series D, commented via Vincent Baillin, Managing Director and Co-Head of Opera Tech Ventures: “We are excited to support Alpaca’s growing presence in Europe and look forward to helping expand access to modern, scalable investment infrastructure across the region.”
Karan Shanmugarajah Appointed CEO of Alpaca Europe
Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO of WealthKernel, has been appointed CEO of Alpaca Europe and will lead the company’s regional operations. He will oversee the expansion of Alpaca’s presence across Europe, bringing deep experience in building and operating regulated investment infrastructure in the region.
The WealthKernel team has joined Alpaca as part of the acquisition, adding regulatory, operational, and product expertise to support partners entering and scaling in European markets.
This combination of local leadership and global infrastructure provides continuity for existing partners while positioning Alpaca to operate effectively within Europe’s regulatory landscape.
“This is an exciting step not just for Alpaca, but for the broader European investment ecosystem,” said Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO of Alpaca Europe. “By combining local regulatory expertise with global, API-driven infrastructure, we are well positioned to help partners build, launch, and scale investment products across Europe with greater speed and efficiency.”
Introducing European Equities Trading
Alongside the acquisition, Alpaca is beginning the rollout of equities trading across European markets, expanding its capabilities beyond the US markets.
As of today, Alpaca supports trading on Germany’s Xetra exchange, one of Europe’s largest equity markets, with additional markets, including Euronext markets and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), expected to follow.
Additional markets beyond Europe are also in development, including the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) and Middle Eastern exchanges, including the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), as Alpaca continues to expand its global market coverage.
Through a single API integration, Alpaca reduces the complexity of cross-border investing, including execution, custody, and settlement, enabling fintechs and financial institutions to offer investing across markets without the traditional operational overhead.
This infrastructure is supported by leading global financial institutions, ensuring reliability and scalability as partners expand internationally.
Scaling Global Investment Infrastructure
Alpaca powers trading infrastructure for hundreds of fintech companies and financial institutions globally.
In the US, the company has also emerged as a leader in tokenized equities, holding a 94% market share in tokenized US stocks and ETFs.
This growth reflects increasing demand for modern investment infrastructure that allows companies to build and scale investing products more efficiently.
Looking Ahead
Global investing remains fragmented across regions, regulators, and infrastructure providers. For most companies, expanding internationally still requires rebuilding brokerage, custody, and compliance capabilities market by market.
Alpaca’s approach is to reduce that fragmentation by building a unified, API-driven brokerage infrastructure across jurisdictions.
With a regulated presence in both the US and Europe, and European equities trading now live, Alpaca is laying the foundation for a platform that enables companies to launch and scale investment products across borders without rebuilding the underlying stack in each market.
For prospective partners, please contact the Alpaca Sales team at [email protected] or complete the form below.
For existing partners, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email the Success team at [email protected].
Contact Alpaca
About Alpaca
Alpaca is a US-headquartered, self-clearing broker-dealer and a global leader in brokerage infrastructure APIs providing access to stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and crypto. Alpaca delivers embeddable finance solutions for tokenization, fully paid securities lending, high-yield cash, 24/5 trading, Shariah-compliant investing, and more. Today, Alpaca powers over 10 million brokerage accounts across hundreds of fintechs and institutions in 40+ countries with over $320M in funding.
Alpaca Europe is a trading name of WealthKernel Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference number 723719. It is registered in England and Wales under number 09686970 with the registered office at 41 Luke Street, London, EC2A 4DP.
WealthKernel Spain, A.V., S.L.U. is authorised and registered with the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), Official Registry No. 328, with registered office at Avda Manoteras 8, Portal 4, Floor 4, Number B, 28050 Madrid, Spain.
Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC (dba "Alpaca Clearing"), member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.
Cryptocurrency services are made available by Alpaca Crypto LLC ("Alpaca Crypto"), a FinCEN registered money services business (NMLS # 2160858), and a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Alpaca Crypto is not a member of SIPC or FINRA. Cryptocurrencies are not stocks and your cryptocurrency investments are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC. Please see the Disclosure Library for more information.
Options trading is not suitable for all investors due to its inherent high risk, which can potentially result in significant losses. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before investing.
Fractional share trading allows a customer to buy and sell fractional share quantities and dollar amounts of certain securities. Fractional share trading presents unique risks and is subject to particular limitations that you should be aware of before engaging in such activity. See Alpaca Customer Agreement at https://alpaca.markets/disclosures for more details.
The testimonials, statements, and opinions presented on the website are applicable to the specific individuals. It is important to note that individual circumstances may vary, and may not be representative of the experience of others. There are no guarantees of future performance or success. The testimonials are voluntarily provided and are not paid, nor were they provided with free products, services or any other benefit in exchange for said statements.
All investments involve risk and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will achieve its objectives. Keep in mind that while diversification may help spread risk, it does not assure a profit, or protect against loss. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.
Fixed income securities can experience a greater risk of principal loss when interest rates rise. These investments are also subject to additional risks, including credit quality fluctuations, market volatility, liquidity constraints, prepayment or early redemption, corporate actions, tax implications, and other influencing factors.
Orders placed outside regular trading hours (9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET) may experience price fluctuations, partial executions, or delays due to lower liquidity and higher volatility. Orders not designated for extended hours execution will be queued for the next trading session. Additionally, fractional trading may be limited during extended hours. For more details, please review Alpaca Extended Hours & Overnight Trading Risk Disclosure.
Alpaca does not make any representation that its products or services are Shariah-compliant. Customers are solely responsible for determining whether any offering meets their own Shariah requirements.
Please read Important Risk Disclosures With Respect To Participating In Fully Paid Securities Lending Transactions carefully before deciding whether to participate in lending Fully Paid Securities or agreeing to enter into a Master Securities Lending Agreement with Alpaca Securities LLC.
These disclosures describe important characteristics of, and risks associated with engaging in, securities-lending transactions.
Alpaca Securities offers a cash management program pursuant to the FDIC Bank Sweep. Customer funds are treated differently and are subject to separate regulatory regimes depending on whether customer funds are held in their brokerage account or within the FDIC Bank Sweep. Alpaca Securities is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures up to $250,000 per deposit against the failure of an FDIC member bank. Customer funds held in brokerage accounts are SIPC insured, but are not eligible for FDIC insurance coverage. Funds maintained in the FDIC Bank Sweep are intended to be eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance coverage but are not covered by SIPC. FDIC insurance does not protect against the failure of Alpaca, Alpaca Securities, or their affiliates, nor against malfeasance by their employees. Program banks that participate in the FDIC Bank Sweep are not members of SIPC, and therefore, funds held in the Program are not SIPC protected. Please see alpaca.markets/disclosures for important additional disclosures regarding Alpaca Securities brokerage offering, as well as FDIC Bank Sweep terms and conditions.
Alpaca's Instant Tokenization Network is owned and developed by AlpacaDB, Inc. and Alpaca Crypto LLC.
Additional geographic restrictions may apply for tokenization services based on local regulatory requirements. Neither Alpaca Crypto LLC nor Alpaca Securities LLC are the issuer of, nor directly involved in, the tokenization of any assets. Tokenization is performed by a third party. Tokenized assets do not represent direct equity ownership in any underlying company or issuer. Instead, tokenized assets generally provide economic exposure to the equity securities of an underlying issuer. As such, holders of tokenized assets have no voting rights, dividend entitlements, or legal claims to the underlying company shares or any residual assets in the event of the underlying company’s liquidation or insolvency, unless explicitly stated otherwise. All investments involve risk. For more information, please see our Tokenization Risk Disclosure.
Cryptocurrency is highly speculative in nature, involves a high degree of risks, such as volatile market price swings, market manipulation, flash crashes, and cybersecurity risks. Cryptocurrency regulations are continuously evolving, and it is your responsibility to understand and abide by them. Cryptocurrency trading can lead to large, immediate and permanent loss of financial value. You should have appropriate knowledge and experience before engaging in cryptocurrency trading. For additional information, please click here.
This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto, respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.
