What happened: In April, US investment infrastructure provider Alpaca raised its $52 million Series C and shared its plans to expand to Europe (and other regions). And now we are seeing this plan being executed, as Alpaca acquired British competitor Wealthkernel (Finextra).
My comment: The investment infrastructure space is becoming increasingly competitive. The four most prominent names in Europe, Seccl and Wealthkernel from the UK and Lemon Markets and Upvest from Germany, have made several funding, expansion and new partnership announcements. Additionally, there are other providers, such as the German providers Evergreen and Sutor Bank, that are also growing their partnership activities.
Alpaca’s acquisition of Wealtkernel demonstrates the seriousness with which Alpaca approaches its European expansion. Acquiring a company of the size, footprint and leadership of Wealtkernel should mean fewer expansion missteps and faster execution. According to Wealthkernel employees, the acquisition is expected to help the company secure larger deals (LinkedIn).
While Wealthkernel received its Spanish licence in 2024 and is onboarding its first EU clients (Wealthkernel), the same can be expected from Upvest in the UK soon. It will be interesting to see how these players compete against each other and who achieves better success with non-financial brands in the years ahead (almost all customers from these providers are from the financial service industry, and thus, not Embedded Finance).
