The Home Advantage is a Belong original series where founders and industry experts explore the future of NRI finance, GIFT City investing, and the fintech innovations helping global Indians grow their wealth with trust and simplicity. In Episode 3, Ayush Singh, Co-founder and CTO of Belong, breaks down what it takes to build the first investment platform out of GIFT City for global Indians. Ayush shares his journey from early engineering to Oracle to Goalwise to Niyo and explains how scale, compliance and product design shaped Belong from day one. He talks about why engineering is the easiest part of fintech and why the real complexity lies in regulation, partner readiness, licensing and building modular systems that can handle new USD products, mutual funds, IPOs and Video KYC the moment they go live. Ayush also discusses Belong’s philosophy on design simplicity, data privacy, infrastructure scale, human support and why dark patterns destroy trust. He explains how the team ships fast without breaking compliance, how Belong prepared for Video KYC before the circular even arrived and why modular architecture lets Belong plug in new GIFT City products at speed. This conversation covers: How Belong engineered the first NRI retail product in GIFT CityWhy modular architecture matters for new USD FDs, MFs and IPOsHow fintech regulations shape product decisionsWhy engineering is easy and compliance is hardHow Belong handles scale, cloud and infrastructureWhy dark patterns break trust in fintechHow data privacy works when customers come from multiple jurisdictionsWhy Belong uses AI as an enabler rather than a decision makerWhat early failures taught the product and engineering teamsHow Belong thinks about onboarding flows, KYC, user effort and simplicityChapters: (00:00) Introduction: Decoding NRI Finances (00:48) Aayush Singh's Journey to Tech and Engineering (04:35) Early Career: Indus Valley to Oracle Scale (09:57) Founding Goalwise and **Niyo** Acquisition (13:35) MNC vs. Fintech Startup Culture (17:39) Identifying the NRI Market for Belong (22:40) Engineering Leadership and Hiring Philosophy (27:38) Building Belong: Modular Design and Challenges (31:32) Achieving $1M AUM and Product Smoothness (34:44) App Design, UX, and Handling Customer Scale (40:19) Navigating GIFT City Regulations and Video KYC (47:47) Startup Reality: Product Launches and First Failure (52:52) Data Privacy, DPDP, and Avoiding Dark Patterns (1:00:27) AI Integration in Development vs. Customer Support Featuring: Ayush Singh, Chief Technology Officer, Belong. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayush-singh-812b3421/ Aswin, @AswinOnFinance, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aswinps About Belong Belong is a fintech platform built for NRIs who want to invest in India with clarity and confidence. From USD Fixed Deposits to GIFT City Mutual Funds, Belong connects global income with Indian opportunities without the NRO, NRE or PIS maze. Explore Belong: Website: https://getbelong.com App: https://app.getbelong.com/LywZ/vqhplj7t Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getbelong LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getbelong X: https://x.com/GetBelong Join our WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DNUCY6cgCfKIYaNivvbEOA #TheHomeAdvantage #Belong #NRIFinance #USDInvesting #GIFTCity #GlobalIndians #AyushSingh #AswinOnFinance
