Rogo Opens Singapore Hub in Push to Become Banking’s AI Operating System — BigGo Finance

Rogo Technologies, an artificial intelligence startup that has built a following among investment banks by automating the tedious work typically assigned to junior analysts, is establishing Singapore as the hub of its Asia-Pacific expansion as it pivots toward a broader ambition: becoming the operating system for entire financial institutions.

The New York-based company is opening an office in the city-state and hiring staff across corporate and commercial banking, asset management, and wealth management, according to co-founder and chief operating officer John Willett. It is also recruiting in Tokyo and Sydney, with plans to reach a regional headcount of 150 to 200 by the end of 2027.

“We want to be the top-to-bottom operating system for the whole bank,” Willett said, describing a shift from selling point solutions to offering an organizing layer that governs AI agents across compliance, token optimization, and internal visibility into how the technology is being used.

The 28-year-old executive said Singapore’s talent pool was “really compelling,” citing the city’s connectivity across the region and its long record as a landing point for Western firms expanding into Asia. The move comes as Asia-Pacific leads the rest of the world in workplace AI adoption, with Singapore topping the International Monetary Fund’s AI Preparedness Index among 174 countries. A 2026 survey by London-based financial software firm Finastra found that 64 percent of the city’s financial institutions are actively deploying AI across key business functions.

Rogo was valued at $2 billion in April in a fundraising round led by Kleiner Perkins. The company reports more than 350 clients globally and over 50,000 bankers and investors using its platform, with users in more than 100 countries.

In Asia, Nomura Holdings’ investment banking division and Daiwa Securities Group are among those using Rogo’s platform, the startup and the firms confirmed. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is also a client, according to people familiar with the matter, while Barclays has rolled out the technology across its Asian offices, other people said. Representatives for GIC and Barclays declined to comment, as did Rogo.

Willett said the firm’s Asia presence is currently concentrated in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, and that the company believes local staff are essential to serving customers in the region effectively.

The startup traces its origins to an undergraduate project at Princeton University in 2019, when Willett and Gabriel Stengel began working on the concept. By 2022, both had left their banking jobs to build the company full time. Stengel departed Lazard and Willett left JPMorgan Chase, joining computer scientist Tumas Rackaitis as co-founders.

The platform initially gained traction by handling spreadsheet automation, slide deck creation, and other repetitive tasks that consume junior bankers’ time. Now, Willett said, large banks are purchasing a more comprehensive layer that coordinates AI agents and provides governance and compliance controls.

The Singapore expansion reflects a strategic bet that Asian financial firms are ready to embed AI more deeply into their operations rather than merely experimenting with isolated tools. The company’s decision to staff teams across multiple business lines, rather than focusing narrowly on mergers and acquisitions or sector coverage, signals an effort to mirror the structure of the region’s diversified financial institutions.

As Rogo scales its Asia-Pacific operations, it joins a wave of technology companies targeting the region’s financial sector with AI offerings. The startup’s $2 billion valuation and blue-chip client roster position it among the more prominent players in the increasingly crowded field of generative AI tools for banking.

The hiring push across Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney underscores how quickly demand for AI infrastructure in financial services has moved from experimental pilots to enterprise-wide deployments. For banks, the appeal lies in both cost reduction and the ability to redirect junior talent toward higher-value work, while maintaining oversight of AI usage through centralized governance systems.