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Iran’s E-Commerce and App Store Giants Continue March to Unicorn Valuations

In November, a government report detailing the first 100 days of President Rouhani’s second term, announced that Digikala, Iran’s leading e-commerce platform, had received a major new investment.

A section of the report tabulating recent foreign direct investment in Iran notes that an entity called International Internet Investment Coöperatief UA (IIIC) has made an investment of USD 100 million to acquire 21% of Noavaran Fan Avaze, the parent company of Digikala, which was founded by twin brothers Hamid and Saeed Mohammadi. Digikala did not respond to request for comment.

The size of the investment is notable as it values Digikala at USD 500 million, making it by far Iran’s largest digital enterprise, and bringing the company to a new milestone on the path to becoming Iran’s first so-called “unicorn,” a tech company with a USD 1 billion valuation. The valuation is also near the USD 580 million price Amazon paid for Souq, the Arab world’s leading e-commerce platform, earlier this year.