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How to Create an Investment Platform
Plan, Skills, Techs, Costs
ScienceSoft brings 19 years of experience in software development for the financial services industry to design and build top-flight investment platforms.
Investment Platform Development: Key Aspects
Investment platform development is a way for financial services companies to provide their clients with a seamless digital investment experience, streamlined portfolio management, and data-driven guidance on optimal investment-related decision-making.
Investment platforms can be designed to serve various investor types (individual and institutional investors), support multiple investment options (e.g., micro-investing, long-term investing), asset classes (stocks, bonds, cash equivalents, commodities, crypto, etc.), regions, and more.
As the share of investors that want to manage their trading operations with no intermediaries grows, such solutions gain more and more traction and have the potential to generate significant revenue.
8 steps to build an investment platform
- Plan the market entry.
- Design an investment platform.
- Select a tech stack.
- Draw a detailed project plan.
- Develop an investment platform.
- Establish the necessary platform integrations.
- Release the ready-to-use investment platform.
- Plan platform maintenance and support.
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Timelines: 8–16+ months. |
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Cost: $400,000–$1,000,000+, depending on the platform complexity. Use our free calculator to estimate the cost for your custom solution. |
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Team: a project manager, a financial IT consultant, a compliance consultant, a solution architect, a UX/UI designer, a DevOps engineer, a back-end developer, a front-end developer, a QA engineer. |
Having 750+ experienced IT professionals on board, ScienceSoft can provide all required competencies to ensure prompt and efficient implementation of your investment platform.
A Roadmap to Investment Platform Development
Below, we outline the key steps to create a successful investment platform and share ScienceSoft's best practices to accelerate the payback from the platform launch and minimize project risks.
Step 1.
Business, market, and end user analysis
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.
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Step 2.
Investment platform design
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.
If you opt to launch a web platform only, we introduce responsive design to ensure that the solution looks excellent and is easy to navigate across mobile devices as well.
Step 3.
Tech stack selection
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).
To optimize development cost and timelines, we rely on proven frameworks, prebuilt components (e.g., ready-made UI elements, OOTB deployment scripts), and open-source APIs (open banking APIs, trading APIs, crypto APIs, etc.), where possible.
Step 4.
Project planning
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.
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Step 5.
Investment platform development
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.
In our projects, we rely on iterative development to introduce the most important functionality first and speed up the platform launch. We can deliver the MVP of your investment platform in 3+ months and consistently grow it to the full-featured solution with major releases every 2–3 weeks.
Step 6.
Integration
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.
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Step 7.
Platform deployment and release
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.
At this stage, we also implement robust security tools (authorization controls for APIs, mechanisms to confirm investment transaction validity, DDoS protection algorithms, firewalls, IDSs / IPSs, DLP systems, etc.) to ensure the protection of your IT system and sensitive data it processes and stores.
Step 8.
After-launch support and evolution (optional)
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.
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Explore ScienceSoft’s Selected Investment Projects
Get Expert Help to Build Your Investment Platform
In financial software development since 2005, ScienceSoft provides all-encompassing consulting and implementation services to deliver robust investment platforms that fully meet end user expectations.
Investment platform consulting
We are here to design the optimal functionality, architecture, UX and UI of your platform and introduce a detailed project roadmap. You benefit from risk-free implementation and balanced project costs.
Investment platform development
Our experts are ready to plan and build your platform, integrate it with all required systems, and assist in the solution release. You enjoy prompt launch, smooth performance, and cost-effective maintenance of your software.
Why Choose ScienceSoft as Your Tech Partner
- Since 2005 in designing and building software for the financial services industry.
- Since 1999 in web development and since 2005 in mobile development.
- Practice-proven expertise in creating solutions with complex business logic that smoothly handle even the most complicated, highly specific investment transactions.
- Proficiency in advanced techs: cloud, AI and ML, big data, blockchain.
- Since 2003 in cybersecurity to guarantee world-class protection of investment platforms.
- Compliance experts with 9+ years of experience to ensure that your solution meets the required legal standards.
- A mature quality management system and customer data security backed up by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certificates.
What makes ScienceSoft different
We achieve project success no matter what
ScienceSoft does not pass mere project administration off as project management, which, unfortunately, often happens on the market. We practice real project management, achieving project success for our clients no matter what.
ScienceSoft USA Corporation Is a 3-Year Champion in the Financial Times Rating
Three years in a row (2022–2024), the Financial Times has included ScienceSoft USA Corporation in the list of 500 fastest-growing American companies. This is the result of our dedication to driving project success despite any constraints and disruptions.
Typical Roles on ScienceSoft's Investment Platform Development Teams
Financial IT consultant
Analyzes the client's platform vision, capital market trends, and investor needs, engineers requirements for the platform.
Compliance Consultant
Analyzes the global and local investment regulatory framework, advises on achieving and maintaining compliance with SEC, GDPR, CMA, etc.
Solution Architect
Designs secure architecture of the platform and integration points for its components and required systems (e.g., trading, money transfer, analytics).
Project Manager
Creates the project plan, designs collaboration flows and coordinates the team, monitors the project progress and reports it to the client.
UX/UI Designer
Designs the user experience and user interfaces of investment applications for various user roles: investor, broker, advisor, etc.
DevOps Engineer
Sets up the IT automation environment to streamline platform development, testing, and deployment and configures the platform's infrastructure.
Front-end Developer
Creates UI of an investment platform and fixes the issues reported by QA engineers.
Back-end Developer
Delivers the back end of an investment platform (including APIs), fixes the issues reported by QA engineers.
QA Engineer
Designs and implements a test strategy, a test plan, and test cases (incl. those for security assessment) to validate the quality of the platform.
NB! Depending on the specifics of the project, ScienceSoft can involve additional talents, for example, blockchain developers to build a crypto investment platform or data scientists to create advanced investment analytics models.
Sourcing Models for Investment Platform Development
ScienceSoft’s Tech Stack to Build Robust Investment Software
In investment platform development projects, ScienceSoft's team usually relies on the following technologies and tools:
Investment Platform Development Costs
Major factors that affect the cost of investment platform development are:
- The chosen sourcing model (in-house, outsourced) and team composition.
- The platform type — web or mobile.
- The scope and complexity of the platform's functional capabilities.
- Implementation of advanced techs (AI, big data, blockchain, etc.).
- Performance, scalability, availability, security, compliance requirements.
- Requirements for role-specific UX and UI.
- The number and complexity of integrations.
- The need to develop ready-to-use APIs.
- Fees for the required cloud storage space, third-party services and tools (authentication tools, security tools, messaging services, etc.).
From ScienceSoft's experience, building an investment platform of average complexity costs around $400,000–$800,000, while developing a comprehensive investment marketplace powered with advanced techs may require $1,000,000+ in investments. The costs of creating a mobile investment app on the existing investment platform's back end typically range between $120,000 and $180,000.
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In the meantime, would you like to learn more about ScienceSoft?
- Project success no matter what: learn how we make good on our mission.
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About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. Since 2005, we've been helping companies design and build winning investment platforms tailored to their business and end user needs. In our projects, we employ robust quality and data security management systems backed by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications. ScienceSoft's top priority is driving development project success despite time and budget constraints and changing requirements.