Investment platform Alpaca has hired Juha
Ristolainen as its new chief technology officer, the company announced today
(Wednesday). The appointment comes as the startup looks to expand
internationally following its recent $52 million Series C funding round.
Alpaca Hires Former Upvest
CTO Ristolainen as Tech Chief
Ristolainen
joins Alpaca from Berlin-based investment infrastructure company Upvest,
where he spent five years as Co-Founder and CTO. During his tenure there, he
helped scale the engineering team from a handful of employees to nearly 100
people while building an API platform that serves major fintech clients,
including Revolut, N26, and Bunq.
Before Upvest, Ristolainen held
the CTO role for TransferWise’s business division (now known as
Wise), where he led API strategy and platform development for two years. His
career spans more than two decades in digital finance, including leadership
positions at automotive giant Daimler’s innovation hub and venture capital firm
InMotion Ventures.
“As
CTO, Ristolainen will lead Alpaca’s technical architecture and engineering
teams at scale to support the company’s mission: opening financial services to
everyone on the planet,” the company said in a statement.
The startup
recently partnered
with Kraken, allowing the crypto exchange to offer access to 11,000 stocks
and ETFs.
$52M Series C Round
Alpaca
operates as a self-clearing broker-dealer that provides brokerage
infrastructure to other financial services companies. The platform currently
powers more than 5 million brokerage accounts across 40+ countries,
according to the company.
At Upvest,
Ristolainen helped raise approximately $180 million in funding through the
company’s Series C round in 2024. The platform he helped develop allows
companies to integrate various asset classes, including ETFs, stocks, mutual
funds, and cryptocurrencies into their own products.
Alpaca’s
recent funding round positions the company to compete more directly with
established players in the brokerage infrastructure space. The startup has been
expanding its international presence as demand grows for API-based financial
services among fintech companies and traditional financial institutions.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
