Business Development and Fundraising
The Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT)
As a consortium member of the Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT), New Silk Roads supported CFJT partners through proposal development support, partnership building, and an intensive fundraising coaching programme.
We also developed a corresponding online course, tailored for green sector startups and scaleups, to increase access to non-commercial funding and blended finance. Through our support, these businesses raised €2.5 million in additional funding to pioneer localised green sector solutions in the MENA region.
Coaching Sudanese Scaleups
The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) supports market-based, scalable approaches to enable over 200,000 young people to access new or better employment opportunities. In Sudan, the CFYE is supporting 249Startups, Alsalam Factory, and IATL International to create job opportunities for young people in their country.
As part of the CFYE’s technical support to its Sudan portfolio, New Silk Roads provided three days of tailored workshops and one-on-one coaching on:
- Operating in fragile and post-conflict markets
- AI-assisted writing tools for grants and applications
- Impact investment, private funders, and blended finance opportunities
Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Project (GGJAP)
The GGJAP is a four-year regional project focused on accelerating SMEs to grow sustainably and create decent jobs for young people. We provided technical fundraising support to the Flat6Labs accelerator to prepare the $3.5 million tender and secure their first multi-year, regional programme.
As part of the GGJAP consortium, New Silk Roads is also assisting with the accelerator design and positioning, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and internal team upskilling. Additionally, our team is developing a specialised e-learning curriculum, which features multi-lingual digital courses on business innovation, impact measurement, and access to finance, specifically designed for SMEs in the Arab states region.
Digital Fundraising Courses and Coaching
New Silk Roads has provided online, in-person, and hybrid fundraising courses to business support organisations, SMEs, and cultural organisations for over a decade. We have also developed a suite of online courses available in English and Arabic on programme design, funder communications, theory of change, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), non-commercial fundraising, and alternative financing.
To date, our team has trained over 35 organisations which have gone on to successfully raise EUR 8 million in funding.
Funder Communications for CRS
New Silk Roads developed donor-facing communications materials for the Catholic Relief Services' (CRS) global project portfolio. Our work focused on demonstrating CRS programmes’ impact and scalability to funders and positioning CRS as a thought leader in programme design and sustainability. In collaboration with the business development unit, New Silk Roads team members prepared targeted communication materials for social media and in-person events, with a focus on CRS’ agricultural, food security, and social resilience programming in Africa and South America.
Our team also advised CRS as it shifted its programmatic and technical communications towards a more targeted audience of funders, development professionals, and partners on LinkedIn.
GreenWorks
The GreenWorks aimed to create 9000 decent jobs for youth in green and digital sectors in Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. As a consortium member, New Silk Roads played several roles, including:
-Developed the theory of change, logframe, and impact monitoring approach for GreenWorks
-Provided fundraising (leverage) services to Hivos and the GreenWorks alliance members to raise an additional 15 million EUR
-Convened a series of multi-stakeholder Futures Labs to activate green and impact-oriented value chains in the MENA region.
Athar Accelerator in Upper Egypt
Athar is an accelerator in Upper Egypt. Since its beginnings as a coworking space, New Silk Roads has worked with Athar to grow into Upper Egypt’s leading startup accelerator. Our team has provided fundraising assistance and trainings to the Athar team, resulting in Athar successfully raising funds from Creativa, Orange Corners, the Drosos Foundation, and the Finnish Embassy in Cairo, among others. As Athar scaled, we offered strategic advising, policy development assistance, and introductions to national and international ecosystem players – especially as Athar specialised in supporting agriculture, energy, and climate startups. We have also directly trained Athar-supported startups on programme design and financial diversification, resulting in follow on funding and geographic expansion.
EBRD: Scaling Green Startups
Through an EBRD-funded voucher programme, Athar Accelerator in Upper Egypt engaged New Silk Roads to provide direct fundraising and professionalisation services directly to the Athar team. In parallel, our team also delivered tailored fundraising and programme design support for a portfolio of green startups from the Egyptian cities of Alexandria, Assuit, and Sohag.
This support resulted in direct follow on funding, such as for Salahly from Assuit, which raised additional funds from LifeMakers Foundation.
Hivos Impact Investment Matchmaking
New Silk Roads implemented investor matchmaking sessions which paired promising young entrepreneurs from Egypt and Tunisia with regional and international investors and funds. Through connecting entrepreneurs with access to capital, they were better positioned to grow their business and create jobs in their cities and communities.
Hivos Business Development
Since 2013, the New Silk Roads fundraising team has supported Hivos with tailored business development services for its programmes on private sector development, job creation, climate justice, freedom of expression and arts and culture in the Middle East and North Africa. Our support included proposal writing, theory of change development, and strategic fundraising advice to Hivos senior programme management. Some of our success stories include securing EUR 8.1 million from Palladium, EUR 9.5 million and EUR 5.5 million and EUR 2.2. million from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (LEAD I, II and BOOST Programs), EUR 5.5 million and EUR 2 million at Sida and 550K from the U.S. State Department.
Green Growth Summit
New Silk Roads initiated and launched the Green Growth Summit in Tunis (2024) and Cairo (2024, 2025). A regional learning platform, the Green Growth Summit transformed lessons from early movers in the green economy into actionable insights to localise and accelerate regenerative economies.
Across three editions, the Green Growth Summit convened 600+ green transition frontrunners, facilitated South–South collaboration between entrepreneurs and Africa-focused climate funds, raised awareness on green sector impact investing, and created a donor task force in Tunisia focused on the green economy.
New Silk Roads also raised an additional ~100K EUR in sponsorship to expand the summits’ reach and impact.
PACESETTERS: Rural and Remote Artistic Practices Driving the Climate Transition
How can cultural practices driving the climate transition be supported through decentralized infrastructures? Instead of starting from major urban centers, PACESETTERS focuses on peripheral and rural contexts as sites of artistic research and practice. Current cases include Genalguacil (a small village in southern Spain), Nowa Huta (a socialist realist district in Kraków), and Galway (on Europe’s western edge). Together with this Horizon Europe consortium and 100 Funds, New Silk Roads is developing and testing a pre-accelerator model and impact fund for artistic entrepreneurship in rural and remote areas.
Strengthening Youth Employability in the ICT Sector
ReBootKamp (RBK) is Tunisia’s first immersive coding bootcamp which trains young people to become employment-ready software engineers.
Under the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, New Silk Roads supported RBK to scale its operations nationally across Tunisia while further professionalising its operations and services.
We specifically worked with RBK to strengthen its curriculum offerings in an increasingly global hiring market. We provided strategic assessments and guidance for gender inclusion, resulting in increased retention and graduation of young women. Finally, we implemented a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework to track training effectiveness and job placements to boost RBK’s competitiveness.
Madar Innovation
We supported Impact Partner to raise EUR 530,000 from Expertise France for the MADAR programme. As a MADAR consortium member, New Silk Roads provided tailored fundraising training for 10 business support organisations (BSOs) and personalised one-on-one coaching for Tunisian startups on business models, fundraising, and partnerships. Additionally, we facilitated matchmaking activities that connected Tunisian incubators and accelerators with European partners, international investors, and experts from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and France.
Prince Claus Fund Fundraising Support
For the Prince Claus Fund, New Silk Roads conducted a comprehensive donor mapping, established a fundraising strategy with a focus on high-potential donors, and organised fundraising missions across EU countries and the United States. We also fundraised directly for the Fund’s core activities, helping to secure EUR 1.2 million from the Dutch Postcode Lottery for an arts and culture program in Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. We also led the fundraising efforts for a worldwide heritage preservation program at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation