Fractional CTO & Technical Advisory
Best for: founders who need a senior technical partner, not a hire yet.
Architecture, tech strategy, hiring, code and vendor review, and de-risking your roadmap.
Apptivate · London
Senior engineering leadership for startups — plus a team to build it.
I'm Ajay Prince. I've spent 15+ years on trading and risk systems at Citi, Man Group and BNP Paribas, and 20+ years shipping production software. Apptivate started in 2015 as a .NET trading and risk consultancy — now it's that same senior judgement, for funded startups, with a team to build.
- 20+ yrs shipping production systems
- ex-Citi · Man Group · BNP Paribas
- UK-led, built in Chennai, India
Experience delivering for
- Citi
- Man Group
- BNP Paribas
- Virtuetech
Services
How Apptivate helps
UK-based senior leadership, with hands to build — without a London agency price tag.
MVP & Product Build
Best for: turning a funded idea into a shipped first product.
From idea to shipped product, built by a focused delivery team with senior oversight.
AI & LLM Integration
Best for: adding practical AI to a real product, not a demo.
Natural-language querying, RAG, conversational UI, and LLM features that actually ship.
Team Augmentation
Best for: extra engineering capacity without London rates.
A cost-effective engineering team in Chennai, India, led and quality-controlled from the UK.
Not sure where to start? Book a free intro call →
Engagement
How it works
- 01
Intro call
A free 30-minute call to understand where you are and what you need.
- 02
Plan
A clear technical plan, scope and estimate. No jargon.
- 03
Build & guide
The UK-led team in Chennai, India builds it; you get senior oversight throughout.
Portfolio
Selected work
Citi Velocity
Globally deployed commodities trading platform.
I contributed to migrating the client-facing desktop/web hybrid to a pure web application using React, Recoil, WAMP and Python.
- React
- Recoil
- WAMP
- Python
BrokeFlyer
Not cheaper tickets — a cheap cell on a chart versus a trip you can take on Thursday night.
Google Flights is a price board, not an answer to “when can I go?” BrokeFlyer treats it as a live dataset: score fares against what that route should cost, then keep only itineraries that fit a real job. We find the trip; booking stays on Google. Live at brokeflyer.com — still being built, but the engine is live.
- Founder-built
- Live product
- Work in progress
Internal products platform
Capital-markets client — engagement via Virtuetech.
Natural-language querying over structured data, conversational grid customisation, product and trade lifecycle, a Node/Express BFF, and RAG.
- React
- TypeScript
- AG Grid
- Node BFF
- Elasticsearch
- RAG
Want something like this for your product? Book a call →
Recommendations
What colleagues say
Ajay has the rare ability to deliver technical solutions, whilst building strong relationships with key business stakeholders.
Not just a manager but a mentor. His strategic insights helped streamline operations and enhance our product offerings as we grew from a small startup.
A friendly and collaborative team player, an excellent problem-solver, and always willing to keep up with the latest tech. I would not hesitate to recommend him.
About
Ajay Prince
Senior judgement. A team that ships.
I've spent 15+ years on trading, risk and investment systems at BNP Paribas, Man Group and Citi — including a VP role on Citi Velocity — and I now work on an internal financial-products web app through Virtuetech. I founded Apptivate in 2015 as a .NET trading and risk consultancy. It's now the vehicle for that same senior judgement, aimed at funded startups that need a technical partner without a full-time London CTO.
I'm based in London and work full-stack across React and TypeScript, .NET and C#, Node, and hands-on AI and LLM integration. Delivery is led from the UK and built with a trusted team in Chennai, India, so you get senior direction and a cost-effective build.
- 20+ years engineering
- ex-Citi, Man Group, BNP Paribas
- London, UK
Contact
Let’s talk
A free intro call is the fastest way to see if we’re a fit. Or send a short note.
Book a call
Thirty minutes. No pitch deck. We’ll talk about where you are and what you need.
Book a free intro callOr email info@apptivate.uk
Send a message
Building something? Let’s talk.
A free 30-minute intro call. Senior direction from London, a team ready to build.