Synexus LLC is a new joint venture established by Connexus Corporation, a woman-owned small business, and International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI) under a Mentor-Protégé Agreement that has been approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Synexus is now up and running and ready to offer specialized technical services in all areas covered by Connexus and IBTCI.

Synexus, like Connexus, will operate as a woman-owned small business. As a Mentor-Protégé joint venture, IBTCI will serve as Mentor and Connexus will serve as Protégé. Connexus is Synexus’ Managing Venturer, with Connexus CEO and President Anita Campion serving as Synexus Program Manager, and IBTCI as the Partner Venturer. Synexus’ headquarters are co-located with Connexus’ headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Synexus, like Connexus, will operate as a woman-owned small business with Connexus serving as Synexus’ Managing Venturer, marking a new milestone in Connexus’ growth and maturity as a corporation.

The establishment of Synexus marks a new entry into the global monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and institutional support playing fields and numerous other areas. Synexus will leverage the combined capacities of IBTCI and Connexus to better support the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United States Department of State (DoS), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and other United States government (USG) funders via a wide range of technical areas and disciplines. Consequently, this new joint venture will bring together an array of talent and expertise and a strong breadth and depth of experience with proven ability to implement USAID’s vision around the world. The two partners offer:

• Connexus Corporation is an international development consulting firm whose mission is to provide high quality global consulting services to transform international development and build local capacity. Operating for more than 15 years, Connexus has experience working in more than 30 countries around the world, delivering technical services that enhance the lives of the poor through a wide variety of areas.

  Connexus’ technical expertise encompasses economic growth, including access to finance and investment, agricultural market development, business enabling environment strengthening, private sector engagement, anti-fragility, public financial management, local capacity building, and gender and social inclusion, among other areas. Connexus also supports institutional strengthening through its Impact Strengthening Development (ISD®) Toolkit. ISD® is a practical, innovative toolkit that applies a systematic approach to assess and build local organizations’ management capacity to compliantly manage projects, with the ultimate goal of enabling the local organization to be positioned to receive direct funding from the USG. Further, Connexus organizes and leads the annual Cracking the Nut® conference, addressing the “tough nuts” or difficult challenges facing the international development community.

• International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI) is an international development consulting company providing high quality services in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL), institutional support, financial and risk management, supply chain/procurement, social behavior change, and capacity building and training. IBTCI strives to meet the development assistance needs of emerging markets and developing countries by offering exceptional functional and regional experience and a commitment to knowledge, performance, and impact. IBTCI works across many sectors, including conflict and crisis, democracy and governance, agriculture and food security, economic growth, education, environment, and global health. With more than 35 years of international development work, IBTCI has worked in more than 120 countries. Like Connexus, IBTCI serves USG agencies including USAID, DoS, and MCC, as well as multilateral and bilateral donors such as UNICEF, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and others.

  In MERL, IBTCI offers industry-leading expertise and supports rigorous MERL tools and methods to assist donors and implementers in performance management. Performance and impact evaluations are designed to provide findings, conclusions, and recommendations that are scalable and actionable. Whether identifying a theory of change, assessing progress toward self-reliance, measuring program performance, or designing a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system for complex data management, IBTCI ensures that high quality data is generated to answer important questions and support progress toward intended results.

IBTCI’s Institutional Support and Program Implementation (ISPI) practice builds on three decades of lessons learned supporting USAID/Washington and field missions. IBTCI identifies and supports technical, operational, and administrative personnel to help USAID and other USG agencies fill critical staffing gaps to achieve their goals and objectives. IBTCI mobilizes, vets, trains, and deploys hundreds of staff per year to dozens of countries. IBTCI’s data-driven systems, inclusive networks, and deep commitment to diversity enable them to identify and support the highest quality individuals and teams for clients when and where needed to deliver exceptional results.

The respective leaders of Connexus and IBTCI expressed their great satisfaction with the establishment of Synexus. Connexus President and CEO Anita Campion said she was “delighted that the new joint venture will be able to broaden capability offerings in MEL and other areas for international donors,” while IBTCI President and CEO Ajay Kalotra expressed appreciation for “the opportunity to expand into new avenues in international development while supporting a successful, growing small business.”