AfroRanking · Capital Advisory
Investor data room: we build it and we run it for you
An interested financier asks for the file within 48 hours. If your documents sit across three mailboxes and one external drive, due diligence stops there, sometimes after months of talks. We take your investor data room off your hands, from the document index through to closing.
Request a bankability audit
A data room ready before the first serious conversation.
Problem
What kills a due diligence
You have been talking to a financier for months. The file reaches credit committee, the analyst asks for everything within 48 hours, and you discover that one signed contract, two certificates and the current financial model are missing. Interest fades inside a week.
The analyst opens your file with a checklist, ticks an item, or writes down a gap. By the sixth gap the analyst puts your file aside and moves to the next one, often without telling you why.
- Documents promised in the business plan and missing from the file.
- Two versions of the same contract, different amounts, no signature date.
- Customer contracts presented as firm, signed by one party only.
- Accounts that do not reconcile with the bank statements.
- Expired articles of association and a shareholders’ agreement still in draft.
- Title deeds, licences and permits nobody can locate.
A financier reads that disorder as execution risk. The reasoning fits in one line: a team that cannot find its own contracts will not hold a seven-year repayment schedule. The quality of the project does not cancel that doubt. An investor data room built in advance answers the objection before the analyst puts it to you.
Our offer · what we build
The 8 folders of an investor data room
We build the structure for you. Eight numbered folders cover what an analyst asks for on a logistics, mining or industrial project, so you stop guessing what to prepare. Inside an investor data room the conversation then runs on folder 03, rather than on “the one with the accounts”.
01 Company and governance
Current articles of association, local company registration, share register, shareholders’ agreement, board minutes, ownership chart.
02 Contracts and customers
Contracts signed by both parties, letters of intent, purchase orders, rate cards, invoicing and collection history.
03 Financials
Three years of accounts, trial balances, bank reconciliations, repayment schedules on existing debt, tax and social security position.
04 Financial model
Workbook with assumptions kept apart from calculations, low and high case, DSCR by period, break-even, price and volume sensitivities.
05 Assets and CAPEX
Supplier quotes, pro forma invoices, title deeds, leases, condition of the existing fleet, delivery and commissioning schedule.
06 Licences, permits, compliance
Sector authorisations, transport or mining approvals, customs compliance, local content obligations, administrative certificates.
07 Insurance, security, guarantees
Policies in force, certificates, security already granted, partial credit guarantees available, political risk cover.
08 Team, HSE and impact
Management track records, headcount, health and safety plan, incident history, social and environmental indicators tracked.
Our offer · three levels
Three levels of support
Pick the level that matches where you stand, or run all three back to back.
LEVEL 01
Index and collection
You see the gaps before the financier does
- You stop hunting for a document every time someone asks for one
- You know which gaps actually block the financing
- You walk into the first meeting with a file that holds together
LEVEL 02
Consistency pass
You avoid the contradictions that break trust
- No more figures that disagree from one file to the next
- Missing documents reissued before anyone gets access
- A file an analyst reads without calling you three times
LEVEL 03
Running the due diligence
You keep the financier to the end
- We carry the questions and answers, you keep running the business
- You gain weeks on the review
- You see which financier is moving and which one is costing you time
Where the investor data room sits in the full mandate
Bankability audit, capital structuring, investor package, pipeline and closing. Hand us the data room alone, or the whole mandate.
Our offer · how we run it
Six steps to open your investor data room
Preparing the file properly takes real time, and approaching financiers takes longer still. In a competitive process several teams read the file at the same time, each on its own track. An investor data room that is ready before the first contact saves you from chasing documents while interest cools.
Benefit
What you gain when we run your investor data room
We run your investor data room on rules that reassure a financier: traceable access granted team by team under NDA, quick answers to every question, no document slipped in quietly during due diligence. You keep control over what leaves the file, we carry the coordination and the chasing.
- A shorter due diligence. The analyst finds the documents without chasing you, and the review moves at committee speed instead of at the speed of your searching.
- A stronger negotiating position. When two financiers work on the same file at the same time, the slow one loses its seat. You compare cost, maturity and covenants instead of accepting them.
- No late surprises. The holes in your file surface at the start, with us, rather than at credit committee months later.
- A file you reuse. The same investor data room serves the next round, the local bank and the equipment lessor, with no rebuild.
That is also what makes it credible to seek commitments comfortably above the amount you actually need. A financier who sees a file under control agrees to co-finance alongside another one.
Rest of the journey
Before and after the investor data room
Capital advisory
The full mandate: audit, structuring, investor package, pipeline, term sheet and closing.
Fundraising
The entry point to the financing journey and the questions we ask at the first meeting.
Bankability audit
The step before. We measure what holds and what blocks before opening an investor data room.
Project funding sources
The capital layers available and the order in which you typically approach them.
Equipment finance and leasing
The fastest layer to activate when the need sits in trucks, plant or machinery.
Frequently asked
Questions about the investor data room
Which tool should you use for an investor data room?
A virtual data room platform earns its cost as soon as several financiers read in parallel: granular rights, watermarking, access log. A corporate file-sharing workspace is enough on a smaller file, provided you get per-user permissions and a readable history. Avoid public links and email attachments.
Do you need an NDA before granting access?
Yes. A confidentiality agreement signed by the analysing entity and by its advisers, before the first access to the investor data room. The teaser and the executive summary travel freely, everything else goes out after signature.
How long does a due diligence take?
It depends on how ready your file is and how many financiers you approach at once. An incomplete investor data room routinely adds weeks, sometimes a full quarter, when a document has to be reissued by a third party — the single biggest lever you control is starting the data room before the first serious conversation.
What do you do when a document does not exist?
We get it reissued by the third party that produced it, or we write a dated note explaining what is missing, what stands in its place and when it will arrive. Analysts accept a documented gap, they punish silence.
Who answers the financiers’ questions?
We do, through a single contact point on the project side. We take the questions, gather the answers internally, put them to you for approval and post them in the log. You stay on the business while the process moves.
Can several financiers use the same investor data room at once?
Yes, and that is the point of a competitive process. Each team gets its own access and its own question log, and nobody sees the others. That is how you keep several offers on the table at once and compare cost, maturity, dilution and covenants instead of accepting the first one.
Next step
Open an investor data room an analyst can read
Send us the file as it stands, gaps included. We come back with the document index, the gap list and the calendar to build your investor data room.
Request a bankability auditPublic resources worth reading while you prepare an investor data room: the World Bank Africa region, the IFC products and services, the UNCTAD investment programme and the OECD investment work. To discuss your file, use the contact page or go back to the AfroRanking home page. AfroRanking works as an adviser and structurer. We do not collect funds, we do not place securities and we guarantee no return.