Alireza Jozi

Ever wondered how the state of online payment and transactions in Iran is doing in country with almost 80 million of population and 92% of debit card penetration?! That is a question that has been asked by many as Iran’s payment landscape has proven to be one of the hottest.

Bef.rest officially kicked off in a launch event on Thursday January 28th 2016, making it Iran’s first push notification system. Befrest wants to provide a better solution for the user’s push notification needs compared to Apple ANS, Google GCM or Pushy. The meaning of the farsi word “Befrest” means “send”,...

The story of Iran’s broadband network plan, and the fiber optic infrastructure has been quite a roller coaster ride. A company called Iranian Net (AKA the forth operator, after MCI, MTN Irancell and Rightel), founded in 2011, was given a five year monopoly on constructing and expanding Iran’s Fiber...

On january 16th, prime minister Narendra Modi announced the lunch of a full scale initiative called Startup India to boost startups, investors and getting India one step closer on becoming the world’s largest startup ecosystem.

Because of the sanctions, Iranian startups had no choice but to play in their own backyard, and forget about expanding. Putting aside the fact that Iranian companies usually weren’t allowed to officially operate in western countries, the biggest issue for Iranian startups that had international users, was the lack of payment portals for international users.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Iran’s compulsory military service (Khedmate Sarbazi). One of the greatest challenges Iranian entrepreneurs face on the road to build their startups is the 2 year mandatory military service for men. The 24 month military service makes Iran in the list of countries that still...

Launching an e-commerce website was the thing back in the 2000s, then came tools and services that helped you launch one, easier than ever. However in every young startup scene that is just taking off, it’s the e-commerce that booms its way around.

In 2015, Iran’s startup ecosystem was at the peak of its “E-commerce Boom”, and a massive amount of web and mobile startups emerged in this year. It is safe to say that Iran had one of the most fastest growing startup ecosystems in the region. In 2016 we will see more...

Every ecosystem has its unique challenges and unique advantages. Iran's startup ecosystem is no different. It is also impossible to find an entrepreneurial ecosystem that does not have unique challenges. By identifying the key challenges of a startup ecosystem, ecosystem stakeholders, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, universities and startup community...

On December 11th 2015, the second BDL Accelerate with the theme of “Emerging Startup Ecosystems” was held in Beirut with more than 7000 participants from all around the world. BDL Accelerate is an annual event organized by the central bank of Lebanon to boost and promote the Lebanese startup...