Mass-affluent wealth platform, public + private markets

A regulated UAE wealth manager wanted to bring the kind of advisory access usually reserved for ultra-HNW clients to a much broader, mass-affluent audience: a $25K minimum, both public and private markets in one platform, every investor paired with a real wealth advisor.

The domain carries strict regulatory boundaries, multi-vendor data flows that rarely line up cleanly and capital-call mechanics that move real money outside the app. The kind of problem where the wrong architecture choices compound over years.

Pre-sales worked the way it's supposed to: scoped the real business and technical constraints across stakeholder meetings, not the sanitized version on the RFP. From there, designed and pitched a cloud-native architecture that covered both market types in a single platform with a clear separation of concerns, so neither domain dragged the other down as the platform grew.

The platform owns the orchestration. Three external rails handle what the platform shouldn't: a global brokerage for public-market custody and execution, a Luxembourg-based fund administrator for the private-markets AIF vehicle and capital-call mechanics, an identity-verification provider for KYC and AML, with a national digital-identity system pre-filling verified data into the flow.

Three surfaces on a shared backend: native mobile (iOS and Android), a responsive web app and an internal admin panel for advisors and operations. Investor onboarding covers a 9-question profiling questionnaire, a 9-step KYC flow with liveness check and tiered capital-call handling (PE funds called gradually over 1–3 years, real-estate funds called 100% upfront within 14 days).

Portfolio monitoring blends public-market positions, private-market commitments (committed and called) and cash earning yield via money-market sweep. Push notifications and email handle capital-call alerts, distributions and KYC status changes. Audit logs land in object-locked storage with a 7-year retention. The architecture is built to grow with the platform without dragging either market type down.

The architecture and the pitch secured the company a major 6-figure contract. The proposed design became the blueprint for the engagement that followed and is now under active development, with launch targeted for late 2026.