As Iran gears up for another round of startup conferences a new player has come to town. This time in the guise of a Finnish startup organization called ‘Slush.’
Slush has been touted as the focal point for European and Asian startups and tech talents to meet with international angel investors willing to invest in their innovative ideas.
The actual event will take place on November 18 in Helsinki in Finland. But, before the main event, the organizers are making a trip to Tehran to check out the local start-up scene and meet new business startups. The event will be held on September 17 at the Shahid Ghandi Conference Center with keynote speeches from the organizers and partners of the conference, including Finland’s Aalto University – currently partners with the Iranian Business School, and the founder of Iran’s largest domestic online home furnishings store Albasco.com.
The Slush organization states on its website that in last year’s initial round of funding investments, 7,000 budding entrepreneurs attended with another 1,200 companies from 68 countries around the world. The winner of this year’s startup prize will receive free tickets to Finland for the main Slush event, accommodation and business mentoring from the company’s selected partners.
Iran’s burgeoning online startup scene has seen exponential growth over the past couple of years, with companies like smart phone app store cafebazaar and online electronics site digikala.com recently being given honorable places in the Economist magazine top start-ups to watch article. The country has seen a large growth in its startup sector recently with conferences across Iran being hosted by companies like the Iran Startup Organization and new business accelerator companies like Avatech which will be hosting their initial batch on companies in the coming weeks.
