Consultancy – Strategic advisor for Scaling and Exit strategy

We are searching for an experienced Consultancy – Strategic advisor for Scaling and Exit strategy at our Sudan facility. 

Project Overview:

The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a 7-year and €134 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to create a prosperous future for 230,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa and Horn of Africa regions. The Fund will be supporting initiatives in 12 focus countries that will offer youth, in particular young women, opportunities for work that is demand-driven and productive, offering a stable income and safe working conditions, and that is contributing to their personal development and social protection.
The portfolio of projects is selected from business cases that were proposed by private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions. Each business case has outlined scalable solutions for creating more and better jobs and income generating opportunities for youth. Solutions in particular focus on an integrated approach that addresses the shortcomings on the demand side (jobs) and supply side (skills) and bridging the mismatch between these two in the labour market.

Assignment Overview:

249Startups is recognized as Sudan’s leading entrepreneurship support organization, with active hubs in Port Sudan, Gedarif, Kassala, and within the Sudanese diaspora. The Rhino Accelerator – Venture Builder is currently operated to co-create ventures aimed at driving economic recovery in frontier and fragile environments. Through this work, meaningful and sustainable employment is being generated for Sudanese youth, with particular emphasis on women and displaced populations.
In a post-conflict environment such as Sudan, the task is not limited to funding startups; the very markets in which these ventures can operate must be actively built. With reliable payment systems, formal logistics, and deep capital markets absent, the ecosystem cannot be left to mature on its own. The venture-building model being implemented is therefore viewed not as a departure from the core mission, but as a pragmatic and adaptive response to market realities.
The rationale for this approach has been shaped by systemic market failures, where the absence of basic infrastructure and auxiliary markets has created barriers to startup success. In-house venture creation has thus been adopted as an essential form of adaptive entrepreneurship, ensuring that key components of the ecosystem are established and that growth opportunities can emerge.

The 249 Venture Builder has been structured as an impact-first venture studio dedicated to the ideation, incubation, and scaling of new businesses in agriculture, fintech, and essential services. Solutions are developed to serve communities inside Sudan as well as Sudanese displaced by conflict, with plans for expansion into frontier and conflict-affected regions across East Africa. The mission of 249Startups has been defined as building and nurturing entrepreneurial ecosystems in these challenging environments, where instability and systemic gaps have historically hindered innovation and business growth.

The venture-building strategy is anchored by a dedicated venture capital vehicle that provides catalytic equity to power the portfolio and stimulate the wider Sudanese startup ecosystem.
The Rhino Accelerator, which was launched in 2022 with CFYE and the Diaspora Sudanese Angels as Sudan’s first startup-focused impact investment initiative, is being transitioned into the institutionalized Rhino Impact Fund. This fund is being deployed to provide early-stage equity investments into Sudanese-led startups and MSMEs across high-impact sectors—agriculture, fintech, health, mobility, education, and clean energy—acting as both a growth engine for portfolio ventures and a catalyst for ecosystem-wide resilience.
The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is supporting this Rhino Venture building & Studio component through a partnership that aims to both scale up 249Startups’s existing venture building capacity and help strengthen the sustainability and employability dimensions of the ventures being built.
This assignment is focused on providing hands-on strategic and operational support to 249Startups' venture building internal team to help them strengthen the studio’s:

- Venture scaling methodology
- Market access strategy for early-stage ventures
- Founder and youth talent integration models
- Sales, partnership and commercial readiness approach

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

The consultant will work closely with the 249 Startups – Rhino acceleration team and CFYE Sudan Lead to advise on:

1. Studio Model Optimization:

- Review and assess the existing 249 Venture Studio framework, including founder journey, equity model, and operational structure.
- Review and resulting advisory on curriculum optimization.
- Benchmark against African and global venture studios that have scaled or exited startups.
- Identify red flags, gaps, or misalignments that may limit future growth or investor interest.

2. Scalability & Growth Strategy Advisory:

- Advise on geographic and sectoral scaling in fragile markets (Horn of Africa, Sahel, diaspora).
- Recommend internal operational models to handle 20–25+ ventures across multiple cohorts.
- Align studio growth strategy with Rhino Fund’s pipeline, capital timing, and impact goals.
- Support the development of a go-to-market framework for spinout ventures (especially in AgriTech, Fintech, Health, and EdTech).
- Identify bottlenecks in product-market fit testing and revenue growth for current studio ventures

3. Exit Pathways & Long-Term Value Capture:

- Map and recommend suitable exit pathways for startups from the studio (e.g., corporate acquisition, revenue-share buybacks, strategic handoff to funds).
- Guide exit-readiness metrics and governance structures for ventures before spin-out.
- Propose mechanisms to allow the studio to retain long-term upside (e.g., carry, royalties, board seats).

4. Youth & Employment Strategy Integration:

- Advise on how to structure ventures to embed youth as employees, agents, franchisees, or resellers.
- Provide a strategy for integrating bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) youth into distribution and marketing systems.
- Recommend performance and incentive models to retain youth agents and reduce churn.

5. Corporate & Strategic Partner Engagement:

- Provide input on long-term exit options or corporate engagement (CVC, PPP, DFIs) for post-studio ventures.
- Recommend partnership strategies and structures (JV, acquisition funnels, syndication with CVCs).

6. Mentorship to 249Startups Venture builder Leadership:

- Act as a sparring partner to senior leadership as the studio transitions from early proof-of-concept to scalable investment infrastructure.

Deliverables:

- Studio Model Evaluation Brief (gap analysis, strategic opportunities, risk flags).
- Scalability & Exit Strategy Memo (clear growth and exit playbook).
- Corporate Engagement Framework (how to pitch, partner, or exit to strategic players).

- Final Executive Debrief + Advisory Presentation 

Level of Effort and Reporting:

The timeline for this assignment is 1st of October to end of February 2026 (5 months).

 Required Qualifications:

- Experience designing, operating, or scaling venture studios or accelerators.
- Has led or advised on startup exits to corporates, PE, DFIs, or strategic acquirers.
- Deep knowledge of Africa’s venture ecosystem, especially high-friction or fragile markets.
- Comfortable advising on cap tables, exit mechanics, governance structuring, and corporate syndication.
- Bonus: experience with impact funds, diaspora-backed ventures, or ESG-linked funds.

Core Competencies:

- Strategic Venture Studio Insight:

1) Deep understanding of how venture studios operate, scale, and sustain themselves in emerging markets
2) Familiarity with founder equity models, spinout governance, and early-stage capital flows

- Market Entry & Sales Expertise:

1) Proven ability to design sales and market penetration strategies for startups or youth-led enterprises
2) Strong grasp of B2B/B2B2C channels, agent/distributor networks, and base-of-pyramid (BoP) market dynamics.

- Youth Employment Integration:

1) Experience designing models that embed youth as agents, entrepreneurs, or employees within startups or distribution chains.
2) Ability to align commercial strategies with job creation outcomes.

- Partnership Building & Exit Thinking:

1) Ability to identify and structure partnerships with corporates, donor programs, or public sector actors.
2) Knowledge of impact exit options (e.g. corporate acquisition, licensing, franchising, strategic handoffs).

- Systems Thinking in Fragile Markets:

1) Contextual sensitivity to the challenges of operating in conflict-affected or low-trust environments.
2) Ability to propose practical, resilient systems adapted to fluid or informal ecosystems.

- Coaching & Knowledge Transfer:

1) Skilled in working collaboratively with local teams, providing mentorship and capacity building.
2) Can document tools and frameworks clearly and deliver Train-the-Trainer (ToT) style sessions.

How to Apply:

Please submit your CV with a short cover letter explaining how you will realize the proposed assignment. Just 1 paragraph detailing the frequency and nature of the interactions with the 249Startups team over the timeline of the assignment is sufficient.

Deadline: 29 August 2025

Our company provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.