According to the social reporter of rahnam news agency, Mehran Aghaei; The head of “Mehrvotec” accelerator, during the presence of journalists in the scientific and technological tour of the vice president’s science and technology and knowledge-based economy in Mazandaran province and visiting “Mehrvotec” accelerator, stated: Mehrotec accelerator company was opened in 2018. The task of this accelerator has been the development of startups, in fact, companies find an elevator through us to reach their goal faster.
Mr. Aghaei said: We received a 5-year memorandum of understanding from the Vice President of Science and Technology of Knowledge-Based Economy, which was titled 5-year acceleration, based on which we invested in teams that successfully exited after our acceleration period and in 2019 Nearly 12 companies had successful exits that led to the product.
The most important task of accelerators in the first stage is to receive companies’ R&D, not their ideas
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator stated: There is a possibility of failure in startups. At the beginning of our work, our view was to attract people who only have ideas and develop the product based on the idea, in this field, the probability of failure is very high. But today, before anything, we get the R&D of the companies, or if we say that if big companies are planning to launch big startups, the probability of their success is very high.
He emphasized: Consider a sweet shop that has sales of nearly 8 billion Tomans per month and intends to launch online and virtual sales, the probability of this person’s success is higher than a person who does not have a physical space at all. Startups that are dependent on a physical business can be more successful.
Referring to the successful startups in this accelerator, the head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator said: A group with a capable team has a stone crusher and sand factory, and their R&D is at our disposal; This team has designed a platform where, instead of selling sand from one factory, they sell sand from many factories, and people in this network are connected to each other.
“Experience” is the most important item in the strengthening of startups
He continued: Another platform named “Highshop” is one of the platforms that did not have any physical platform in the form of bicycles. In my opinion, one of the items that is effective in making startups stronger is “experience”. This platform works in such a way that any debit card you have can be defined in the system of this platform, and the “High Shop” system has contracts with different stores, and when you use the same debit card in the store, you will receive an instant discount percentage. gives you
Saying that there are very large hypermarkets in Mazandaran province, Mr. Aghaei clarified: This startup has a contract with very large hypermarkets and provides services to its customers and is moving forward with strength.
Financing less than 2 billion tomans is not useful for startups!
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator emphasized: We teach startups how to launch their business. On the other hand, no startup will be successful without financial capability. The minimum financial requirement for small startups is 2 billion tomans, and less than that will not help. Startups that need financing, because of the memorandum we have with Mazandaran Science and Technology Park, we introduce facilities and facilities to our startups to attract their share of the market.
Mehrotech Accelerator “Co-Investment” with Innovation and Prosperity Fund
Referring to the agreement of this accelerator with the Innovation and Prosperity Fund, Mr. Aghaei stated: One of the services provided by the Innovation and Prosperity Fund is co-investment with accelerators, and our accelerator has also signed this contract. Co-investment means that the accelerator company finds and evaluates different teams and invests in them, and as much as the accelerator invests in the company, the innovation and prosperity fund doubles it, which of course has this ceiling.
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator stated: Of course, startups that do not have strong financial support but have a strong idea and very strong people are present in these startups, a small amount of capital is given to them step by step and in three stages to raise their capital from If they don’t give up, then this startup will go to the market and will be able to receive more facilities. We talk and consult with a number of people who are big players in the market, for example, one of them is the representative of Parsian e-commerce in Mazandaran province, which has 40,000 customers, which is a very large capacity.
Aghaei said: Last year, we signed another memorandum with the Vice-Chancellor of Science, where we took our concept to the creative and innovation house, where startups are also active in that field.
Recruitment of startups is done only through the industry
The head of “Mehrvotek” Accelerator stated: A working group is formed according to the work and the target activity, and various propositions, including the person’s history in the target activity, the person’s age, previous work done, the amount of the person’s loan in the past, etc., are evaluated. Placed. We are only looking to attract startups in the industry and the industry has also strongly welcomed this and today the industry is looking for knowledge-based.
Stating the reasons for the industry’s acceptance of knowledge-based companies, he said: Industrial companies strongly welcome having a knowledge-based brand on them. Next is the benefits that are considered. Today, if the industry wants to create its own R&D, it spends 20-25% of its tax return on R&D during the year and it is deducted from its tax.
The biggest challenge of the technology and innovation ecosystem; Banks are not familiar with the concept of “virtual goods”.
Expressing the challenges facing this ecosystem, the head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator emphasized: Our first and biggest challenge is that the bank does not understand the virtual concept, considering that many startups pursue their activities in the virtual space and this intellectual property in The range is a mobile phone, but it is very valuable. Banks mainly talk about physical goods and don’t care about virtual goods.
The financing model of startups in Iran is very wrong!
Aghaei said: If you look at the ecosystem of the UAE or the Netherlands, you will realize that their financial injection is very different from that of Iran. In Iran, we give money to a startup that is unemployed today, but next year, it will be an unemployed debtor! That is, the startup faces failure and seeks to pay its installments. Therefore, our financial model in Iran with startups is very wrong!
He continued: We don’t give free facilities to startups, but we have to do it. Maybe this facility is offered in every corner, but its figure is less than 100 million tomans!
The need to support the scientific vice-chancellor of creative houses, accelerators and VCs
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator said: The scientific vice president should believe in creative houses, accelerators, VCs as his powerful arms. The Scientific Vice-Chancellor should launch trainings and provide facilities to visit the ecosystem of different countries such as the Netherlands, Dubai, Malaysia, Turkey, Singapore, etc. and implement these experiences in Iran.
Aghaei continued: The Scientific Vice-Chancellor should provide accelerators with tools so that we can support our startups. Today, we live in a country where if we invest any money in property and land, our capital will multiply in a few years! In which market and which investment is he willing to invest in this ecosystem today? In Tehran, you need to have 5 to 10 billion tomans to invest in real estate, while in Mazandaran province, you can buy land with 1 billion tomans, and in a few years your investment will multiply!
The head of the “Mehrvotek” accelerator stated: The scientific vice president must plan a proper recruitment process and have appropriate contracts so that if the startups face failure, they will not have a crisis in paying their loans! Today, we have many failed accelerators in the country, and there are also many failed creative houses in this system, and if they are profitable, they are profitable in other fields because they are busy with other things.
He said: We have a programmer in the field of IT who works as a freelancer in Europe and America and receives 1000 to 1500 dollars per month, and now that we are able to trade with Bitcoin and the like, why not do it?! To better communicate with other places.
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator said: “No one gives a price to the young people who work in accelerators and creative houses, and that’s why they choose the park between the accelerator, the growth center and the science and technology park!”
Why is the startup located in the accelerator unable to receive the facilities of Note 18 of the budget law?
Referring to note 18 of the budget law for the development of knowledge bases in the country’s technology and innovation ecosystem, Mr. Aghaei said: Accelerator startups are not able to receive the facilities of note 18 of the budget law for knowledge bases! And it is required that the startup must be a member of Science and Technology Park!
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator emphasized: No one knows the overall concept of knowledge bases, accelerator, creative house, science and technology park and all the actors of this system! Did the Vice-Chancellor of Science say anywhere to provide facilities to creative houses? In note 16, Mazandaran province had a credit of 550 billion tomans, of which 165 billion was absorbed and the rest was returned! Why don’t they help the creative houses because no one knows these creative houses and has no understanding of this issue.
He continued: We had a project called “Rural Creative Desk” in the sense that the tools that exist in the country are present in different cities of the actors of the technological ecosystem and innovation, but they are not in the villages. 43% of the population of Mazandaran province is rural and it can be said that almost half of the population of Mazandaran is rural and we wanted to set up a service desk through Behiari.
Mr. Aghaei continued: Consultations were held with the Mazandaran Governorate, Mazandaran Science and Technology Park and other places so that we can implement this ecosystem in the villages, but no budget has been allocated to us so far.
The head of “Mehrvotec” accelerator emphasized: These challenges are not intentional and in many places we are facing legal gaps, for example, the bank says that we are not at all familiar with the concept of a creative house, and on behalf of the vice president of scientific policy making to provide facilities to accelerators and There were no creative houses.
Aghaei said: “Today, many companies that settle in accelerators also register in parks to receive some services through science and technology parks, and this means that accelerators are not known in the country.”
Referring to a number of successful companies of this accelerator, he clarified: an application is related to a candy store that is operating very successfully; The next one is a mass builder that developed and worked on the first construction CRM; We have another startup that has completed its development and this startup attracts and designs clothing designers, tailors, buyers and sellers in an ecosystem; This startup has reached the point where we are asking Canada to invest in this project so that this startup can be launched in Canada.
The head of “Mehrvotek” accelerator emphasized: “We have a startup in the field of English language that has 12 thousand active members and is working in an extremely strong way. Today, Harkat Awl Group has invested in this startup.”
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