How to Create an Investment Platform

ScienceSoft starts the development journey with a thorough analysis of the following important aspects:

• The client's vision of the platform's scope and capabilities, requirements for the platform availability in particular regions, specific requirements for customer experience.
• Recent market trends and competitive environment across various niches: B2B and B2C investment, short-term and long-term investment, asset class-specific investment, traditional and alternative investment, etc.
• The solution's target audience, its needs and pains. The potential to maximize the platform user base.
• Feasible approaches to platform monetization.
• Global and local regulatory compliance requirements in the regions where the client plans to operate, e.g., KYC/AML requirements, SEC and FINRA for the US, CMA for the KSA, GDPR and PSD2 for the EU.

The obtained insights lay the basis for defining a best-fitting niche, type (web, mobile, or both), and monetization model for the platform and introducing a detailed list of functional and non-functional requirements for the solution.

During this stage, ScienceSoft's team moves from a high-level platform concept to a clear solution design. We deliver:

• An optimal feature set for the platform, including security and compliance features and value-adding functionality enabled by advanced techs (e.g., AI-powered recommendations on optimal investment decisions). We prioritize features based on their importance for end users and the potential to drive a prompt payoff.
• Architecture design for the platform and integration points between its components. We architect a stable and scalable solution that can withstand peak loads and seamlessly support the expected volume of transactions.
• UX and UI design for various user roles (individual investors, institutional investors, external partners, admins, etc.). When creating user journeys and the platform's appearance, we aim to introduce maximized convenience for end users and reflect a company's unique visual style.

• A plan of integrations with relevant corporate software (CRM, accounting software, etc.) and third-party systems, such as bank systems, payment gateways, stock market and FX data platforms, treasury software of institutional investors.

We analyze the available techs and tools for investment platform development and compose the best-fitting toolkit with clients' priorities in mind (e.g., fast solution launch, minimized operational budget).

At this stage, ScienceSoft introduces a detailed project plan, which comprises:

• Critical milestones, objectives, and KPIs for the project.
• Project deliverables, timelines, and budget.
• Project-associated risks (incl. unforeseen events like asset market crashes and investment-related regulatory changes) and the ways to mitigate them.
• Team composition and collaboration workflows.
• Expected TCO and ROI of the investment platform.

The development of an investment platform with ScienceSoft usually covers:

• Establishing development and delivery automation environments: CI/CD, container orchestration, etc.
• Coding the platform's back end, including APIs.
• Creating role-based user interfaces.
• Setting up data storage for investor and investment transaction data.
• Running the required testing procedures in parallel with development.

NB: Implementing AI-powered advisors may increase the platform's value for end users and become an important competitive distinction for your solution. If you decide to introduce intelligent virtual assistants for investors, the development stage will additionally cover building, training, and tuning of AI models.

ScienceSoft's team integrates the investment platform with all required internal and third-party software. We also perform integration testing to eliminate possible logical errors and ensure smooth data flow between the connected systems.

ScienceSoft configures the platform's infrastructure, establishes data backup and recovery procedures, and sets the ready solution live. We can help create a promotional website, a dedicated landing page, or assist in uploading your client-facing investment app to the required web or mobile app stores to streamline the platform release.

ScienceSoft ensures smooth operation and high value of your investment platform in the long run due to:

• Prompt fixing of the platform performance, availability, and scalability issues, if any.
• Upgrading the solution's functional and non-functional capabilities according to the changing business and end user needs (e.g., adding support for new asset classes, advancing ML models for investment performance forecasting).
• Monitoring and maintaining platform compliance with relevant data security standards and regulations.