AperioHub · Project Brief
April 2026 Cohort
Group Pegasus · Wealthtech Goes Regional
A Singapore-based wealthtech and robo-advisory platform is looking to expand beyond its home market — your team will analyse candidate markets and develop an entry strategy.
Banking & Finance
Consulting & Business Strategy
Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Client Brief
The situation. A Singapore-headquartered wealthtech company offers a robo-advisory platform targeting the mass-affluent segment — individuals who want professionally managed, low-fee investment portfolios but fall below the thresholds of traditional private banking. The platform is mobile-first, established in its home market, and now looking to grow internationally.
The opportunity. Singapore's mass-affluent segment is maturing and customer acquisition costs are rising. The company has identified four candidate markets for expansion: India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Each offers a large and growing middle class, rising digital adoption, and a retail investing culture that is still developing — conditions where a well-positioned digital wealth product could find meaningful traction.
Your mandate. Your team has been engaged as an external advisory group. The ask is focused: select one market to analyse in depth and develop a credible entry strategy for it. Your team should pick the market it believes is most compelling — based on opportunity size, competitive dynamics, and realistic entry conditions — and make that case. If capacity allows, a second market can be explored in parallel for comparison, but the primary deliverable is a well-grounded recommendation on one market.
The core questions. Who is the retail investor in your chosen market? What do they currently do with their savings, and what barriers exist to digital wealth adoption? Who is already competing for this customer, and where is the gap? What would a realistic entry approach look like for a Singapore-origin platform?
Key challenges
Comparing markets with different data quality
Regulatory pathways for foreign fintechs
Quantifying a largely unbanked investor base
Making a committed recommendation under uncertainty
Skills you will develop
Market screening and prioritisation
Competitive landscape analysis
Market sizing with triangulation
Go-to-market strategy
Structured recommendation under ambiguity
Program Roadmap
The structure below is a suggested progression. Week 1 is about getting the team aligned — understanding the brief, agreeing on which market to focus on, and dividing the work. Weeks 2 and 3 are the analytical core. Week 4 is synthesis and delivery. If the team has capacity, a second market can be explored alongside the primary one — but the core deliverable is a strong recommendation on one.
Week 1
A
Align
Scope · explore
Week 2
B
Build
Research · model
Week 3
C
Converge
Synthesise · decide
Week 4
D
Deliver
Present · submit
A — Align: Scope, Market Choice & Team Setup
Before analysis begins, the team needs to agree on what it is solving, which market to focus on, and who is covering what.
Days 1–7
Read the brief carefully as a team — make sure everyone understands the mandate and the four candidate markets
Agree on your primary market — the one the team believes is most compelling or most interesting to explore in depth
Divide workstreams based on team interest and prior knowledge — who is covering what by Week 2?
Start preliminary reading on your chosen market — what do you already know, and what are the first questions you need to answer?
Suggested output by end of week
Coordinators: The priority this week is getting the team on a call and agreeing on the market. Don't let the choice drag into Week 2. A quick, reasoned decision is better than a perfect one delayed.
B — Build: Research & Analysis
The engine room. Each workstream goes deep on the primary market independently this week.
Days 8–14
Retail investor profile: who is the target customer, what do they currently do with their savings, what barriers exist to digital wealth adoption
Competitive landscape: who is in the digital wealth space in this market, what are their fee structures and positioning, where is the gap
Market sizing: estimate the addressable mass-affluent population — use public income and household data, triangulate from multiple sources
If the team has capacity: run the same analysis on a second market for comparison — but do not sacrifice depth on the primary market to do so
Suggested output by end of week
Coordinators: Check in mid-week. If the team is spread thin across two markets, redirect focus to the primary one. A strong single-market analysis is worth far more than two thin ones.
C — Converge: Entry Strategy & Recommendation
Pull the analysis together into a coherent entry strategy and a clear recommendation.
Days 15–21
Design the entry approach for the primary market: target customer segment, positioning and messaging, digital acquisition channel(s), and any partnership or distribution model worth considering
If a second market was analysed: position it as a Year 2 follow-on and explain the sequencing logic — why primary first?
Identify the top 3 risks to the strategy and what the client should monitor before committing
Begin structuring the final presentation — lead with the recommendation, then the supporting evidence
Suggested output by end of week
Coordinators: Push the group to commit to a point of view this week. The final deliverable should contain a clear recommendation — not a balanced "here are the pros and cons" hedge.
D — Deliver: Final Presentation & Submission
Assemble the work, sharpen the narrative, and present as if the client's leadership is in the room.
Days 22–28
Structure the presentation as a board-ready recommendation — lead with the answer, support it with evidence, close with risks and next steps
Include a data appendix: the screening matrix, TAM workings, competitor comparison table, and any charts that support the narrative
Practise the delivery as a group — the presenter should be able to handle a challenge on any slide
Submit: final deck, data workbook, and the group reflection document
Final submission
Final Presentation
The date and format of final presentations will be communicated by your coordinator and confirmed in your Slack project channel. Plan for a 15–20 minute presentation followed by Q&A.
Workstreams
Three workstreams cover the core analysis; a fourth pulls everything into the final recommendation. The team should assign ownership of each workstream by end of Week 1. Members may contribute across workstreams, but each needs a clear lead.
Workstream 1
Customer & Market Profile
Understanding the retail investor in the chosen market — who they are, what they do with their savings, and what barriers exist to digital wealth adoption.
Workstream 2
Competitive Landscape & Market Sizing
Mapping existing digital wealth players, identifying the whitespace, and estimating the addressable opportunity using publicly available data.
Workstream 3
Go-to-Market Approach
Designing the entry strategy — target segment, positioning and messaging, digital acquisition channels, and any partnership or distribution model worth considering.
Workstream 4
Risk, Synthesis & Recommendation
Stress-testing the strategy, identifying key risks, and shaping all workstreams into a coherent, board-ready recommendation.
WS1 · Market Screening & Selection
What this covers
Defining common screening criteria applicable to all four markets
Gathering comparable data across India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines
Scoring and ranking markets to support the Week 1 selection decision
Useful starting points
Weighted scoring matrix — agree on criteria and weights before scoring
World Bank, IMF, and central bank databases for macro and financial data
GSMA and ASEAN fintech reports for digital adoption benchmarks
The most common mistake in market screening is choosing criteria after you already know which market you want — build the framework first, score honestly, then see where the data leads.
Shared Google Drive
Keep all work in your team's shared folder. All work-in-progress files, drafts, and final deliverables should be maintained in your group's shared Google Drive folder throughout the program. Your team-specific Drive link will be shared on your respective Slack project channel.
Reference Resources
Resources will be added to this section as the program progresses. Watch for a notification in your Slack project channel.
Data & Analytics Component
Using AI Tools
We support the use of AI tools as part of your research and analysis process. Most of your peers will be using them — and in professional settings, so will you. The expectation is that you use AI as a thinking tool, not as a replacement for your own judgment. The analysis, the conclusions, and the recommendation are still yours.
Use it to accelerate, not to replace
AI is effective for research synthesis, structuring arguments, and sense-checking logic. It is not a substitute for understanding what you are presenting.
Verify before you rely
AI tools can produce inaccurate data, statistics, and citations. Any figure or fact in your final deliverable should be independently confirmed.
Own your recommendation
You should be able to explain and defend every conclusion in your work. If you cannot explain it, it should not be in your final deliverable.
Use it to get unstuck
Stuck on how to frame a problem or approach an analysis? AI is a useful thinking partner — ask it questions, not just answers.
Used by your cohort:
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
Perplexity
Llama
Reflection — Include With Your Submission
Include a brief group response to each of the following as part of your Week 4 submission. There are no right answers — these help us understand how your team engaged with the project and what to improve for future cohorts.
01 · Engagement
What aspect of the project genuinely interested your team — and did that change as the work progressed?
02 · Most Valuable Insight
What is the single most important thing your team learned that you did not know before?
This could be about the subject matter, the analytical process, or how your team worked together.
03 · Hardest Part
What was the hardest part of completing this project — and how did your team resolve it?
04 · Career Relevance
How does this project connect to the career paths people in your team are building?
Be specific — generic answers are less useful than honest ones.
05 · What Would You Do Next
If you had four more weeks, what would you investigate or build on — and what would you want to learn that this project did not cover?
Submission: One response per group, submitted alongside your final deliverable. Coordinators should compile and review before submitting.