Snapp Ride-Sharing App in Iran Secures Financing
The Iran Internet Group has secured a €20 million Series A round of financing for its ride sharing application Snapp. The South African mobile phone company MTN led the round.
€20 million is among the second largest investments in Iran’s nascent startup ecosystem this year. In March Swedish based investment firm Pomegranate invested €60 million in Sarava, an Iranian investment firm focused on e-commerce. Sarava has backed Digikala, one of Iran’s most successful e-commerce startups.
Snapp currently operates only in Tehran, Iran’s capital city. The company employs 10,000 drivers in a city of 8.1 million residents and has recorded half a million users, largely through word-of-mouth.
Most of Iran’s population of 80 million is under 30, with a high rate of literacy (98 percent). Nearly 65 percent of Iranian homes have broadband access and mobile penetration is 136 percent, with an estimated 83.2 million mobile subscriptions, the largest in the Middle East.
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