Five Startup Accelerators for Tehran

EghtesadOnline: Five startup accelerators will soon start work in Tehran as per an agreement between Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, the Information Technology Organization, and a knowledge-based firm named Hub backed by Shahid Beheshti University.

News ID: ۷۴۶۷۸۱

25 February 2019

The accelerators will support early-stage technology startups in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, augmented reality, virtual reality and blockchain technology.

Services offered by the accelerators will include education courses mentorship, legal counseling and financial support, ITO.gov.ir reported.

The agreement was signed by ITO Chief Amir Nazemi, Mehdi Mohammadi, a deputy to vice president for science and technology, and Mohammad Reza Sobhanian, the Hub director, according to Financial Tribune.

Nazemi said the accelerators will help create the groundwork for emerging firms and assist new technology companies grow.

The move also aims to promote goals of “digital economic development”. Government officials say digital economic development as a solution to curb the economy’s overreliance on oil by developing technology-based businesses.

Iran’s economy has been over dependent on the export of oil and other natural resources for almost a century. Experts and economic pundits are of the opinion that such dependency is very risky due to a verity of reasons the least of which is the sheer lack of innovation, motivation, oneness, transparency, inability and unwillingness to move beyond oil, misappropriation of state funds and gross mismanagement.

ICT-based business models are expected to gradually turn the economy around and help create alternative sources of revenue.

With the same goal, the tech park ‘Digital Economic Development’ was launched in the shrine city of Mashhad earlier this month.

Backing knowledge-based companies and startups has been a priority of the Rouhani government after he took office in 2013.