Online Platform Aims to Ease Investment in Startups

EghtesadOnline: Domestic financial services group Turquoise Partners unveiled an online system to ease investment in startups at Iran National Library late on Wednesday.

News ID: ۷۴۸۶۲۷

05 October 2019

The system named Firouzeh Plat (Firouzehplat.com) allows startup shareholders to publish an ad anonymously, saying they are willing to fully or partly offer their company’s shares.

On the other hand, those who want to invest in a startup can file an ad announcing their interest.

Minor stakeholders might want to have a price tag on their shares for personal reasons, which are lower than the company’s valuation. If such news is made public, it could bring down the firm’s value. This would not be something that owners of startups would look kindly upon, Financial Tribune reported.

Therefore, no price will be mentioned on the website and the agreements will be confidential.

After the two sides file their offerings, Turquoise would verify them. Then the two sides will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. From this point on, all the negotiations will be conducted behind closed doors.

Depending on the transaction's worth, Turquoise will get up to 10% commission on each deal.

The main issue that has motivated Turquoise to introduce such a service is the difficulty of listing startups on Tehran Stock Exchange.

“TSE’s current rules and regulations would not allow any startup IPO in Iran in the foreseeable future,” Turquoise CEO said at the event.

Ramin Rabii blamed the country’s bloated bureaucracy.

“M&As are inevitable. Iranian startups need to merge to have a chance of claiming a share in the global market. By joining forces and undergoing mergers, many Iranian #startups can become unicorns,” he said.

A unicorn is a privately-held startup company valued at over $1 billion. The term was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures.