How to Create an Investment Platform

At the very first stage of the development journey, business analysts analyze and document the following important aspects:

• The company's vision of platform capabilities, requirements for platform availability in particular regions, specific requirements for customer experience.
• 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. ScienceSoft applies techniques like field studies, diary studies, analyses of contextual inquiries, and focus group interviews to discover user preferences and spot pragmatic ways to maximize the platform user base.
• Feasible approaches to monetizing the platform.

At ScienceSoft, we also involve compliance consultants to analyze and map regulatory requirements relevant to the regions where the platform is intended to operate (e.g., AML/OFAC requirements, SEC for the US, SAMA for the KSA, GDPR for the EU). This way, we ensure a compliant platform design from the onset.

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

During this stage, development teams move from a high-level investment platform concept to a clear solution design. Here are the key technical decisions to make:

• Designing business logic for the platform, including security and compliance features and value-adding functionality enabled by advanced techs (e.g., AI-powered portfolio construction, AML/OFAC screenings automated via RPA). Reusing logic components across multiple features, where applicable, contributes to investment platform accuracy, cuts design and development efforts, and minimizes regression risks during platform evolution.
• Architecture design for the platform and the integration points between its components. By opting for modular cloud architectures (SOA, microservices, serverless), you get 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.). If you opt to launch a web investment platform only, prioritize responsive design to ensure that the solution looks appealing and is easy to navigate across mobile devices as well.

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

Architects analyze the available technologies and tools for investment platform development and compose the best-fitting toolkit with the company’s priorities in mind (e.g., fast solution launch or minimized operational budget).

Applying investment-specific frameworks and libraries (e.g., QuantLib, Pandas), prebuilt UI and logic components, OOTB deployment scripts, and open-source APIs (banking, trading, crypto, etc.) where possible will help you reduce development cost and time without compromising platform quality.

Here, project managers introduce a detailed project plan, which comprises:

• Critical objectives, time-framed task scope, and KPIs for the project. Check our dedicated page to learn what metrics can be used to assess and continuously improve project health and software quality.
• Team composition and collaboration workflows. PMs at ScienceSoft use a RACI matrix to clarify development roles, streamline decision-making, and enhance teamwork efficiency.
• Project deliverables, time and budget estimates. Follow the link to discover what estimation techniques work best for maximizing budgeting accuracy.
• Project-associated risks and ways to mitigate them. When composing a risk response plan, factor in the known and potential risks across project operations, business constraints, and external events (e.g., asset market fluctuations, investment regulation changes).

This is the stage where developers code the back end of the investment platform (including APIs), create role-specific user interfaces, and set up scalable data storage for investor and transactional data.

• Applying iterative development will let you introduce the most important functionality first and speed up the platform launch. Based on ScienceSoft’s experience in Agile development, an MVP for an investment platform can be delivered in 3–5 months.
• Establishing development and delivery automation (CI/CD, container orchestration, etc.) helps speed up development, testing, integration, and deployment operations.
• By running testing in parallel with development, you will be able to spot and fix code issues quickly.
• A structured approach to change request processing will help you agilely implement feasible adjustments to your platform without risks of scope creep. Here’s how to organize change management properly.

Back-end engineers integrate the investment platform with the required internal and third-party software using prebuilt APIs and custom connectors. Integration testing is a must to eliminate possible compatibility issues and ensure smooth and secure data flows between the connected systems. If your platform features high-frequency trading, latency testing may be required to evaluate API response speed.

At this stage, development teams configure the platform's infrastructure, establish data backup and recovery procedures, and set the ready solution live. Prior to launch, double-audit platform compliance and involve your target user group in user acceptance testing.

To streamline platform release, ScienceSoft can help you create a promotional website or upload your client-facing investment app to the required web or mobile app stores.

Once your investment platform goes live, you need to organize its support and maintenance. Here are some of ScienceSoft’s practices to ensure smooth operation and long-lasting value of investment solutions:

• Continuous monitoring of the investment platform performance (tracking KPIs like latency, throughput, load, and spare capacity).
• Investment platform performance optimization (e.g., via load balancing among processing servers to enhance platform availability).
• L1–L4 support to quickly handle user-side, platform, and infrastructure issues.
• Regular security and compliance assessments with recommendations on fixing vulnerabilities and bridging compliance gaps.
• Platform functional upgrading according to changing business and end-user needs (e.g., adding support for new asset classes, advancing ML models for investment performance forecasting).