Afrimintel → Build Roadmap
Build Roadmap
Three platform infrastructure items are required for Afrimintel to operate at the level its acquirer thesis demands. All three are known and sequenced. None is being built speculatively. Each has a defined commercial or commitment trigger. Publishing the roadmap on this basis is more honest than publishing a calendar-based version we would miss.
Editorial position
We are building Afrimintel with revenue-funded infrastructure. Each item on this roadmap is committed at the point a customer or partnership event makes it necessary — not before. This is intentional, not reluctant. Speculative infrastructure is the cemetery of single-founder intelligence platforms.
§1Why trigger-based
Infrastructure items built before a paying customer asks for them carry two failure modes at once: they consume capital that could fund customer acquisition, and they often turn out to be the wrong version of the item once a real customer actually shows up. A Postgres schema designed in the abstract is almost always materially different from the schema a real data-ingestion user wants. An API endpoint catalogue designed pre-user is almost always refactored after first integration. SOC2 Type II started speculatively lacks the specific controls a specific enterprise customer will request.
We publish this roadmap not as a commitment to build on a date, but as a commitment to build in an order — and at triggers that mean each build is funded, validated, and shaped by the commercial event that made it necessary.
§2The three items
01
Postgres + PostGIS + read-only API + Excel connector
Data-ingestion infrastructure
On hold
What it is
Proper geospatial backend (Postgres with PostGIS extension) replacing the current JavaScript data layer. Read-only REST API endpoints for Afrimintel's scoring outputs, deposit inventory, province summaries, and calibration results. An Excel plug-in allowing analysts to pull Afrimintel data directly into their spreadsheets — the standard workflow for mining finance, DFI credit teams, and exploration management.
Why it matters
Every enterprise buyer — DFI, major, institutional fund — will ask "can we ingest your data into our workflow?" within the first commercial conversation. A static JavaScript file on Netlify is not an answer that survives procurement. This is procurement-gating infrastructure for enterprise subscription revenue.
Indicative cost
$13K–$23K one-off + $200–$400/month running. Backend contractor 3–4 weeks ($8–$15K). Excel connector 2–3 weeks ($5–$8K). Managed Postgres + API hosting + monitoring recurring.
Time to build
4–6 weeks with one competent contractor. Not blocked by technology — blocked by commitment decision.
Trigger
First paying customer requests data-pull capability, OR second serious enterprise commercial conversation in which workflow integration is raised as a purchase condition. Whichever is first.
02
Cadastre integration — 3–5 priority African jurisdictions
Live permit-status data from national mining cadastres
On hold
What it is
Automated ingestion pipelines from national mining cadastres — scraped where HTML, API where agreements can be reached, OCR-processed where PDF-only. Refreshed on a cadence that matches each jurisdiction's publication pattern.
Why it matters
Aggregated live cadastre data across 5+ African jurisdictions is a genuine moat contribution, not just a feature. Wood Mackenzie has not built this because the ROI at their scale is low. For an Africa-specific intelligence platform, cadastre aggregation is simultaneously table stakes and differentiator — the thing a major or acquirer cannot replicate quickly because the legal relationships and pipeline maintenance are jurisdictional.
Indicative cost
$6K–$12K for initial 3 jurisdictions, plus 10–20 hours/month ongoing maintenance per jurisdiction. Cost varies by cadastre format (HTML low, API medium, PDF-OCR high).
Time to build
6–10 weeks staggered for initial three jurisdictions. Each additional jurisdiction adds 2–3 weeks. Not concurrent — each needs validation against a real user in that geography before moving to the next.
Trigger
A paying retainer from a user active in a specific jurisdiction. The first cadastre built will be for the geography of the first paying customer. Each subsequent cadastre expansion requires a paying user — or a named commitment — tied to that geography. No speculative geographic expansion.
Priority tier
Realistic starting candidates — each has a functioning online cadastre portal AND aligns with an Afrimintel high-scored province AND has active commercial potential:
01 · Botswana — MMEWR portal · Kalahari Copper Belt · province rank 1 · active Cu-Ag transactions
02 · Ghana — Minerals Commission GIS · Birimian Au province · Fraser IAI 56.98 · mature junior base
03 · South Africa — SAMRAD · continent's most advanced digital cadastre · PGE + Au + Mn concentration
04 · Namibia — MME portal · Kalahari extension + uranium · strategic for KCB story
05 · Rwanda — GIMCS · consular-access advantage · 3Ts + REE potential
Not all five at once. Order of build determined by where the first paying customer operates. Each jurisdiction requires live verification of portal availability and terms-of-use compliance before integration commits.
03
SOC2 Type II attestation
Security controls audit for enterprise procurement
On hold
What it is
Independent audit of Afrimintel's security controls across a 6–12 month observation period, producing a formal Type II attestation report. Covers data handling, access controls, change management, vendor management, and incident response. Usually delivered via a compliance-automation platform (Vanta, Drata) combined with an accredited auditor.
Why it matters
DFIs, majors, and any regulated financial or government buyer will not procure from a platform without SOC2 Type II or an equivalent recognised framework (ISO 27001). This is procurement-gating — not feature-gating. Without it, Afrimintel is limited to subscription revenue below the enterprise threshold.
Indicative cost
$30K–$55K first year, $15K–$25K per year ongoing. Compliance automation platform ($10K–$15K/year). Initial readiness consultant ($10K–$15K). Auditor fees for Type II attestation ($20K–$25K). Internal time commitment significant.
Time to build
9–12 months minimum. Type II requires a continuous observation period — typically 6 months — before the audit itself can be conducted. This is the longest-lead item on the roadmap and cannot be compressed.
Trigger
An enterprise or DFI conversation that progresses to "contract conditional on SOC2 compliance." At that trigger, the contract funds the audit. Starting speculatively means consuming $40K–$60K before revenue — a pattern that has killed single-founder platforms before. SOC2 will be initiated the day a specific named contract requires it.
§3Sequencing
The three items are not independent. Each depends on the one before it, and each is triggered by a commercial event that makes the next item possible.
Event → Build chain
→
First paying customer secured
Commits Item 01 build. Customer becomes validation partner and reference. API built to fit actual integration need, not abstract design.
→
Item 01 ships; customer retained; second customer in same or adjacent geography
Commits Item 02 cadastre integration for that geography. Cadastre is built for a specific paying user, not speculatively for continental coverage.
→
Enterprise or DFI conversation reaches contract-conditional-on-SOC2
Commits Item 03 SOC2 Type II. The contract funds the audit. 9–12 month observation period begins; interim procurement uses a published Security & Data Handling Practices statement to bridge the gap.
→
SOC2 attestation issued
Platform now eligible for the full enterprise and DFI procurement universe. Acquirer conversations strengthen materially. Infrastructure layer is complete and revenue-funded.
§4Current state
As of 20 April 2026, Afrimintel has no paying customers. The first commercial conversations are active but not yet closed. None of the three roadmap items is currently under construction. This is the expected state for an Africa-focused independent intelligence platform at pre-revenue stage. The correct response is not to start building speculatively. The correct response is to close the first commercial conversation, at which point Item 01 becomes committed.
§5What we are building instead, now
The platform is not static in the pre-trigger period. Work currently prioritised — because it is independent of the three structural items above — includes calibration anchor expansion against named primary-source technical reports, finished-artefact output templates such as the Deal Evaluator Target Area Assessment, and editorial and category positioning through the methodology page, the calibration substrate, and the epistemic tagging convention. These are zero-capex moves that build category leadership without committing to premature infrastructure.
When the first trigger fires, Item 01 begins. Until then, Afrimintel's effort is concentrated on the work that creates the trigger — commercial conversations, calibration rigour, and category visibility — rather than the work that the trigger itself will fund.
On publishing a roadmap at all. Most early-stage platforms either publish nothing (signals lack of vision) or publish a calendar-based roadmap with optimistic dates (signals poor founder judgment when dates slip). A trigger-based roadmap is neither. It tells a reader — an acquirer, a potential customer, a senior advisor — exactly how Afrimintel will build, in what order, and at what cost, and explicitly refuses to commit to a date we cannot control. This is the same editorial discipline applied to the methodology page: tell the reader what we know, tag what we do not know, and publish the gap. The roadmap is an extension of Afrimintel's editorial principle, not a departure from it.