249Startups — Sudan's Leading Tech Accelerator and Its Collapse Under Civil War

249Startups is Sudan's leading startup accelerator, founded in Khartoum in April 2018 by Mutaz Mohamednour, Khansa Elhag and Ahmed Elmurtada. Through its acceleration and seed-funding programmes it built a track record of supporting more than 120 Sudanese businesses that went on to create over 1,000 jobs and raise more than $700,000 in follow-on funding.

In 2022 it launched Rhino Investments, described as Sudan's first equity fund for early-stage startups and SMEs, alongside a $500,000 seed-funding round for up to 14 companies. By early 2023 Khartoum's wider tech scene had attracted real external capital -- fintech Bloom had raised $6.5 million from Y Combinator and other investors, and marketplace operator Alsoug/Cashi had raised a combined $6 million.

When civil war broke out between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces on 15 April 2023, 249Startups' operations shut down completely for the first month and its team dispersed across Ethiopia, Egypt and the UAE. Other Khartoum-based founders described offices deserted, inventory abandoned and bank accounts left inoperative.

Included here as a cautionary case: a genuinely functioning accelerator ecosystem -- with real jobs, real follow-on funding and a first-of-its-kind equity fund -- can be dismantled within days once armed conflict removes the physical and financial infrastructure it depends on.