The story of Azadi Innovation Factory has become a controversial issue in the country’s startup ecosystem. Hamava company requested help from the ecosystem by publishing a statement, Park Campus managers promise to release good news in the near future, and the head of the Hamava board of directors announced that the factory will remain until the end of May 2024
According to the IDEA, Saeed Rahmani, the founder of Sarava Company, has written an open letter to the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem in this regard, which he first published in the attached monthly. The text of this letter is as follows:
Saeed Rahmani’s open letter to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country
Turning off the lights of the innovation factory is black; A light in my hand, a light before me, I go to war with darkness.
6 years ago, we founded Azadi Innovation Factory with the aim of creating a place to fulfill the dreams and ideas of the country’s young entrepreneurs, with the support of the esteemed residents of the ecosystem, the support of the shareholders of AMA company, especially the esteemed Alizadeh family, and the support of the Scientific Vice-Chancellor and the Fardis Technology Park.
At that time, the nascent startup ecosystem of the country was facing many challenges. Our biggest concern was the dispersion of entrepreneurs and their young seedlings in the city of Tehran. We believed that putting startups and entrepreneurs together with investors, mentors and other supporters would increase their chances of success. This was a solution that was tried and worked in most of the other big cities of the world.
Now that the Innovation Factory has become the biggest home of startups and a symbol of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country, it is facing the risk of shutdown and destruction. The innovation factory is a clear example of cooperation and empathy in the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which was formed by the role of all stakeholders, from young entrepreneurs to successful innovative companies, to private sector investors and public and governmental centers and institutions of the country, and despite all the contradictions between these actors, for It has been operating for 6 years.
The continuation of this cooperation is undoubtedly a more fruitful experience for building the future of the country’s digital economy than totalitarianism and its non-continuation.
Our wish is to turn the special road into the “Silicon Valley” of Iran
Cooperation and empathy in the startup ecosystem has been the secret of success in other countries and similar ecosystems, including Silicon Valley. Our wish was to turn the special road into the “Silicon Valley” of Iran, and the lights of the factory’s innovation tower were turned on with this intention.
There have been many ups and downs. Opponents and short-sighted people who considered the light of this light as a threat and the spread of misguidance and heterogeneous culture and still do. The supporters who wished for the economic independence of our country saw and see only through empowering the powerful young generation and creating self-confidence and supporting them to embark on the path of entrepreneurship.
The role of the private sector in Iran’s digital economy is undeniable. The role of Sarava and Hamava and all other private sector stakeholders and activists of Iran’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in the formation and survival of Azadi Innovation Factory is also undeniable.
The support of governmental and private sectors, including the scientific vice-chancellor and the campus technology park, has also been very important in this direction, because without their protection of this great space of innovation, the bad-hearted would not have allowed this light to stay on. But the inappropriate interference of these sectors, differences in methods and external pressures and threats have also created many challenges along this path.
Failure to respect property rights and imposing a disproportional contract means moving towards the confiscation of the property
Our agreement 6 years ago with the then board of AMA was based on a win-win agreement between the parties. At that time, we mortgaged an abandoned property without operating license at the daily price. Today, we have created one of the best and most beautiful work centers in the region, which has become famous among Iranians and the world. There is no doubt that this development has increased the value of the property for Ama, and we are happy about it.
Without any doubt, we have been and are the defenders of the ownership rights of Ama and all its small and large shareholders as a public company listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Any agreement in the future should also be made with their consent, and imposing a new mortgage or purchase contract at a disproportionate price, in our opinion, means stepping on the path of confiscation of this property.
At that time, we did not have the financial possibility to buy the property, and the plan to create an innovation factory in the country was so far-fetched and scary that it was not possible to attract capital for it. Therefore, the only way was the same mortgage and rent for the maximum possible time, i.e. 5 years. We were sure that after the realization of this dream and the establishment of numerous innovation centers in this place, the situation will change, and it has.
We were never looking for property ownership and rent and we will never be. We invested up to the last rial of Sarava’s capital on startups in the country; This was and is our promise to the investors of Sarava and our mission. We believe that the first innovation factory and a symbol of entrepreneurship in Iran, which was established in one of the first industrial factories of the country, should belong to all of us. It belongs to the founders of AMA, the founders of Azadi Innovation Factory and all the established innovation centers and all the entrepreneurs who step on this path.
Sarava has not received any other government benefits except pressure and threats!
Two years ago, the negotiations for the extension of the mortgage and rent (of course at the current price) and the purchase of the property started with Ama. The willingness of many residents, innovation centers based in Azadi Innovation Factory and other entrepreneurial ecosystem activists to participate in order to buy was and is very high. They are not the owners of these sheds and have not received any loans or facilities from this route. Some people have claimed that the founders of Azadi Innovation Factory have set up the innovation factory with rent and to use government benefits, and now the rooster’s tail is sticking out!
There is no one who does not know that Sarava has not received any other government benefits except for pressure, threats and slander. The innovation factory was launched despite all these urges to do nothing and be passive. Hamava, which implemented this project, has received a loan of 3 billion Tomans during this period, which it has repaid with interest until the last Rial. Meanwhile, he has spent 10.5 billion tomans for the reconstruction of the factory in 2018.
Contrary to this claim, the founders of the private sector of the innovation factory instead provided benefits to the public sector of the country. In order to prevent the threat and pressure and the closure of the innovation factory, he agreed that this place will become the first branch of Pardis Technology Park (outside the city of Pardis).
They agreed to mortgage 5 out of 10 factories in the amount of 5 billion tomans to Pardis Technology Park. Hamava then rented 2 sheds out of these 5 sheds with a monthly rent of 105 million tomans and an increase of 7% per year, from Open Park, and during this period, Hamava gave 10% of all its income from renting the factory space to others. He has paid the charge to the campus technology park. Where in the world is this private sector use of government benefits?! Let me note that even the usual benefits and services of the technology park, such as tax exemption, have not been extended to the factory!
The innovation factory is a symbol of the country’s entrepreneurship and a model of synergy and empathy, not totalitarianism
But without a doubt, the residents of Azadi Innovation Factory want to continue operating in this place, and for this reason, they want to extend the lease or purchase. Unfortunately, in the past one year, the private sector has been left out of direct negotiations with the owner, and the replaced institutions have not been able to reach a definite and final win-win solution with the owner. Despite all these problems, we are sure that by giving enough time, it is possible to reach a suitable and acceptable agreement by the parties, provided that there is no interference from government institutions.
In all parts of the world, governments or public institutions establish such centers as innovation infrastructure and dedicate them to the use of real and active users of these types of spaces for years. In other countries, they wish for such centers to be created and remain active, but in Iran, the dispute is over whether the main role of starting the innovation factory is with the private sector or the government! Either they welcome the turning off of this light under the pretext of the formation of an “asymmetric and unbalanced ecosystem”, or they think that if there is no freedom innovation factory, “then neglected and suppressed opportunities in the country” will be better seen.
According to him, “The suspension of the Azadi Innovation Factory is not only the destruction of the dreams of a generation of Iranian youth, but it may be an opportunity for the fish to move from this aquarium to the sea and become bigger and bigger!” Read that it is better to turn off the light of the innovation factory, that instead of migrating startup forces from the cities to Tehran, we encourage them to migrate to the bigger and more attractive sea abroad! By fueling these pointless debates, the wish of the bad-hearted to turn off the light of hope of the youth will come true.
Today, Azadi Innovation Factory has become the most active innovation center in the country in many fields such as artificial intelligence, biology and pharmaceuticals, health, film and content, travel and urban planning and architecture, finance and insurance, modern agriculture and dozens of other fields.
The Innovation Factory is now being compared to Station F in Paris, while being completely indigenous and self-sufficient. I suggest that if you haven’t seen the Azadi Innovation Factory up close, you must visit this place and the startups and teams located there while you still have the chance.
The innovation factory is a symbol of the country’s entrepreneurship and a model of synergy and empathy of Iran’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and it should be the opposite of totalitarianism and divisiveness, and its continued existence will warm hearts and keep hope alive. The turning off of its lights is a sign of retreat and the dominance of blackness. Let’s not let blackness dominate the entrepreneurial ecosystem any more.
We feel that our comfort is our absence.
Saeed Rahmani, the founder of Sarava and active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Iran
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