Ready and willing, Iran's startup scene

Soheil Alavi didn’t see much opportunity in the Tehran tech scene during a visit in 2013.

Fast forward 18 months and the unfortunate death of his father had him back in town. What the Toronto-based Iranian developer and designer saw this time left him feeling quite different.

“My mind was blown,” he tells Wamda. “I saw all the relevant elements of a startup ecosystem coming together.”

Alavi decided to return home to exploit the entrepreneurial opportunities he felt were emerging. While the startup ecosystem’s growth has not been without its challenges, things are starting to look up, not least when it comes to investment.

The apparently rapid development of Iran’s startup ecosystem has been helped along by, of all things, the years-long negotiations around halting Iran’s nuclear program. International chatter around future investment opportunities in startups has been rising as the possibility of sanctions ending has increased.

With a deal announced yesterday international investors are poised like coiled springs, ready for the chance to leap into profitable sectors.

Ripe for investment

Iran is the sixth most invested-in country in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, so the wall was never as high as westerners thought, but those investments don’t come easily.

Traditionally the most common sectors for foreign direct investment were oil and gas, vehicle manufacturing, copper mining, petrochemicals, and food and pharmaceuticals. But over the last few years there’s been rising interest in the country’s nascent tech sector.

Original article by Lucy Knight

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Ready and willing, Iran’s startup scene