Harakat-e-Aval, meaning the first move in Persian, as a major investment arm affiliated with Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran, abbreviated as MCI, presented an overview of its investment strategy and performance.
Majid Mokhtarnia, senior coordinator of Harakat-e-Aval tech hub, along with the CEOs of Isfahan, Shiraz and Shahid Beheshti university tech hubs, presented a report in an online meeting.
Mokhtarnia added that it has invested about 200 billion rials ($666,449) in various startups through university hubs in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2021).
The official noted that despite the high risk of investment activities, Harakat-e-Aval has continued to identify elite and qualified people who pursue technological activities as an academic hobby. He also said Harakat-e-Aval will remain active in various fields of the tech ecosystem nationwide.
Asked about the next city where Harakat-e-Aval plans to set up a hub, he said, "We do not have a definite plan at present and we are reviewing the existing capacities by interacting with the main actors in this field."
Last Iranian year, teams from various cities such as Bushehr and Shahr-e Kord were present in the Shiraz hub.
Mokhtarnia noted that in the next Iranian year (starting March 21, 2022), the creation of hubs will be based on geographical priorities, but provinces such as Khorasan Razavi, Gilan, Mazandaran and Semnan will probably be the main priorities.
“However, we still emphasize that we do not have geographical restrictions. We have also had teams from Sistan-Baluchestan in Tehran, Iran’s capital, although they have not been able to enter the investment sector,” he added.
Harakat-e-Aval has created academic hubs in different regions for identifying potential startup teams for investment.
Investments in Isfahan University Hub
Mehran Karami, CEO of Isfahan Province’s hub, stated that the investment volume for the Isfahan hub has been 50 billion rials ($167,112), of which 15 billion rials ($50,133) have been non-cash.
“So far, eight startups, including Gymshow, Arka and Aloomelk, have entered this cycle through the Isfahan University hub, and the capacity of this group is 100 people,” he said.
“Most of the activities of the Isfahan hub are due to the potential of Isfahan’s city in the fields of tourism, internet of things and artificial intelligence.”
According to the official, during the Isfahan hub’s four calls to attract new teams, 30 teams have entered pre-acceleration and screening so far and between 2-6 billion rials ($6,684-20,053) have been invested in the teams that have reached the acceleration stage.
Beheshti University Hub and Cross-Border Markets
Saber Monadi, CEO of Shahid Beheshti University’s hub, said, "We have signed contracts worth 40 billion rials [$133,689] in the field of acceleration and we will invest another 40 billion rials by the end of Jan. 20."
According to the official, Beheshti University’s first artificial intelligence studio was established in March and 424 teams from all over the country have applied to join the Beheshti hub.
“Of the 36 teams attended the competition camp, 26 teams were shortlisted for the final round and five teams were selected for the investment process.
He emphasized that the fields of the Beheshti hub’s activities are trending and popular topics in the world. He mentioned education based on entertainment, mobile games and computer games as important topics in the Isfahan Hub.
According to CEO of Shahid Beheshti University’s hub, most of the teams in the hub are from Sharif, Tehran and Amirkabir universities and entering the cross-border markets is one of the most important goals of the Beheshti hub.
Shiraz Hub’s Investments
Ali Nikmohammadi, CEO of the Shiraz hub, also stated in the online meeting that the hub started its activities on Oct. 23 and is looking to attract successful startup teams from all over the country.
He explained that last year, eight startup teams received 50 billion rials as cash and non-cash investments and so far, 24 teams have entered the pre-acceleration stage.
According to the official, Shiraz has good potentials in the field of health and medicine, while stressing that non-financial investments such as the possibility of using shared space and a powerful network of mentors have all made significant contributions to startup teams.
Nikmohammadi announced that in the next Iranian year, they will definitely increase the volume of investment in the Shiraz hub by 100%.
Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran is the top and largest mobile operator in Iran.
MCI is a subsidiary of the Telecommunications Company of Iran and has approximately 17 million postpaid and 49 million prepaid subscribers. Its services are available in 1,239 cities and cover 70,000 kilometers of Iranian highways. It provides roaming services via 271 partner operators in more than 112 countries.
