Alpaca, a Silicon Valley-based API stock brokerage, has launched the world's first commission-free trading platform for automated investing and trading, transforming retail investing by enabling users to easily use algorithms, trading bots, and artificial intelligence. The platform integrates with QuantConnect, an algorithmic trading platform that enables investors to design, build, and test quantitative strategies, allowing users to automate their investments. Alpaca has received significant interest from the developer community, with over 4,000 accounts already registered on a waiting list, and has closed a $3 million Pre-Series A round, bringing total funding to $6 million. The company's technology is already used by institutional investors in Asia, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and aims to facilitate automated and quantitative trading for retail investors.