Iran’s crowdfunding market reached 1,345 trillion rials ($4.8 million) by the end of the last fiscal year (March 20), a deputy chief at the Iran Fara Bourse said.
Speaking at a conference on “promoting crowdfunding platforms”, Aref Qolipour, the Iran Fara Bourse deputy for financial institutions, said that the crowdfunding market has been expanding slowly over the past two years.
Crowdfunding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture. It provides easy accessibility of vast networks of people through social media and websites to bring investors and entrepreneurs together, with the potential of increasing entrepreneurship by expanding the investor pool.
Rules for crowdfunding in Iran were first announced in August 2018.
Qolipour said crowdfunding has gained traction since inception, noting that 152 companies have applied to launch a crowdfunding platform, 20 of which have received agreements in principle and 12 have permits to operate.
“Last year, 40 projects were designated to be financed via crowdfunding instruments. Fund-raising was completed for three projects while 32 others are in the process of raising funds,” he was quoted as saying.
The projects are mainly related to health, information technology and commercial sectors.
Among the designated businesses eligible to use financial resources via crowdfunding are knowledge-based companies, SMEs, small-scale development projects and startups.
