For project sponsors
Submit your project. AfCEN records it, screens it, scores it, and routes it. If it is ready for investors, it appears on the public opportunities board.
↓Draft → Intake → Gate 1 → Scoring → Gate 2 → Road A or BThe pipeline
How it works
AfCEN Deal Rooms work in two directions. Project sponsors submit their projects, which are assessed, scored, and routed through a disciplined gate process. Investors browse the projects that reach the market track, register, clear onboarding and KYC, and access increasing detail under NDA — from a public teaser to a full data room.
For investors
Browse opportunities publicly. Register, clear KYC and NDA, and unlock increasing detail — from indicative bands to full project documents.
↓Browse → Register → KYC + NDA → Qualified brief → Data roomSubmitting a project — the pipeline
A project enters as a draft and exits on a road. Six steps, in order, each one refusing rather than guessing when it lacks what it needs. The diagram below shows the whole journey.
How to read this diagram
Project stage
Gate (decision)
Scoring
Road A — preparation
Road B — market
Forward flow
Re-screen / re-score
The journey, step by step
01
Draft
A project is recorded — its name, sponsor, country, sector, pillar, stage, and how much capital it needs. Supporting documents can be attached and tagged.
The project sits in draft. Nothing has judged it yet. The record can be edited as many times as needed before intake.
02
Intake
The work of getting the record complete enough to be screened. Three yes/no judgements must be recorded by a person: is the documentation sufficient, is the project politically and reputationally acceptable, and is there a plausible investor or technical-assistance pathway.
An unanswered question is not a pass. Leaving one blank blocks Gate 1 exactly as firmly as answering no to the first one.
03
Gate 1 — eligibility screen
The system reads the project and returns one of four outcomes with the reasons attached: eligible, needs intake completion, technical-assistance only, or reject and archive.
Re-screening is expected, not exceptional. A project that comes back as needs intake completion is meant to be completed and screened again.
04
Scoring
Only projects that came back eligible can be scored. An assessor grades the project against its pillar's model — either weighted criteria producing a 0–100 composite, or a maturity ladder for agribusiness.
Every score is a new version, never an overwrite. Re-scoring appends. The full history is retained and readable.
05
Gate 2 — the fork
Gate 2 reads the project's current assessment and decides which of two roads it belongs on. It is the only thing in the system that assigns a road.
Re-running Gate 2 on an already-routed project re-derives the decision from its current assessment — which is what makes re-scoring able to move a project from one road to the other.
06
Road A or Road B
Road A is preparation — gaps are identified against the pillar model and a draft Terms of Reference can be generated for each gap. Road B is the market track — the project is shown to investors through three tiers of access.
A project can move from Road A to Road B. Re-scoring changes the assessment, and Gate 2 re-derives the road from the new score. Nothing is locked.
Gate 1 — the four outcomes
Gate 1 is not a score. It is a list of named checks evaluated in strict order, and the first one that trips decides the outcome.
The project is politically or reputationally unacceptable, or has no plausible pathway. These cannot be fixed by supplying more data.
A mandatory field is missing, or one of the three screening questions is unanswered. The project goes back to intake.
The project is real and acceptable, but its capital need is below the infrastructure-scale threshold. It routes to TA rather than scoring.
Everything passed. The project is cleared for readiness scoring and moves to the next step.
Gate 2 — the fork
Gate 2 reads the project's score and assigns it to one of two roads. It is the only thing in the system that assigns a road.
Road A — Preparation
For projects not yet ready for investors. The system identifies gaps against the pillar model and a draft Terms of Reference can be generated for each gap — what needs doing, to close which gap, for which project.
Road B — Market
For projects ready to be shown to investors. Three layers of access: a public teaser, a qualified brief, and a data room. Each layer requires more clearance than the one before it.
Road B — three levels of access
The more you are cleared for, the more you see. The diagram below shows the three levels — what each one reveals, and what AfCEN requires before it opens.
The teaser
Public. No account, no NDA. Bands only — a capital band, never a figure; no sponsor identity; no documents.
The qualified brief
Requires the investor to be onboarded, KYC clear and unexpired, and a platform NDA executed. Exact figures, sponsor identity, full narrative.
The data room
Everything in Tier 2, plus a project-specific NDA and the sponsor's recorded approval for this investor on this project. Documents, models, contracts.
For investors — from browsing to the data room
An investor arrives with no account and leaves with a data room. Five steps, each one unlocking more detail than the last.
01
Browse opportunities
Anyone can browse the public opportunities board — no account, no login. Each project shows its name, country, sector, pillar, and indicative capital and readiness bands.
What you see is a Tier 1 teaser: enough to decide whether a project is worth asking about, and not enough to be a data room. Exact figures and sponsor identity are not shown.
02
Register interest
Create an investor account. You provide your name, email, and the investing entity you represent. The account exists immediately but is not yet cleared.
Registration is the gate between browsing and access. Until AfCEN completes onboarding, no project detail beyond the public teaser is available to the account.
03
Onboarding and KYC
AfCEN verifies the investor — legal entity, jurisdiction, regulatory status, beneficial ownership, and KYC/AML checks. A platform-level NDA is executed.
This is what unlocks Tier 2. KYC has an expiry date — a check cleared two years ago is not cleared now, and an expired status blocks access until it is renewed.
04
Qualified brief
With KYC clear and the platform NDA executed, the investor sees the qualified brief — exact financial figures, the sponsor's identity, and the full project narrative.
This is the second layer of access. It is still not the data room. Documents, models, and contracts remain behind the next gate.
05
Data room
The deepest layer. Requires a project-specific NDA and the sponsor's recorded approval for this investor on this specific project. Full documents, financial models, contracts, and studies.
Access is per project, not blanket. The sponsor decides who enters their data room, and AfCEN records that decision — it is not assumed.