Successful startups from Iran and the world, venture capital and angel investors, accelerators, technology parks, universities, crowdfunding platforms, media, events and the people who built the ecosystem.
Nanyang Technological University
University program
Singapore's technology university.
National University of Singapore
University program
Leading Asian university whose enterprise arm runs overseas startup colleges.
Oxford Foundry
University program
University of Oxford's entrepreneurship centre for students.
Pardis Technology Park
Accelerator or incubator
Iran's largest technology park, east of Tehran, home to hundreds of tech companies and the Inotex expo.
Peter Thiel
Ecosystem figure
Co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, first outside investor in Facebook, author of Zero to One.
Safe Superintelligence
Startup or tech company
AI lab focused only on building safe superintelligence.

Sahand University of Technology
University program
Technical university near Tabriz.
Sakana AI
Startup or tech company
Tokyo AI lab that draws on ideas from nature, co-founded by a co-author of the Transformer paper.

Shahid Beheshti University
University program
Major Tehran university with science, engineering and management schools and an incubator.
Shahrood University of Technology
University program
Technical university in Semnan province.
Sharif University of Technology
University program
Leading engineering university whose alumni founded many of Iran's best-known startups.
Sharif University Technology Park
Science and technology park
Technology park supporting companies founded by Sharif University students and alumni.
Shiraz University
University program
Leading university in southern Iran with engineering and medical research.
SkyDeck Europe
Accelerator or incubator
European program of Berkeley SkyDeck.

Slush
Event
Student-run startup event that became a major meeting place for founders and investors.
Sorena Sattari
Ecosystem figure
Former Vice President for Science and Technology who championed Iran's knowledge-based companies law.

Stanford StartX
University program
Nonprofit accelerator for Stanford-affiliated founders.

Stanford University
University program
University at the heart of Silicon Valley whose alumni founded Google, Nvidia and many more.

Station F
Accelerator or incubator
World's largest startup campus, in a former Paris rail depot.
Tarbiat Modares University
University program
Graduate-only university in Tehran known for research in engineering, science and medicine.

Technical University of Munich
University program
Leading German technical university with the UnternehmerTUM founder centre.

Technion
University program
Israel Institute of Technology, a source of many Israeli tech founders.

Thiel Fellowship
Support program
Two-year grant for young people who want to build things instead of attending college.
Tsinghua University
University program
Top Chinese engineering university with the TusPark science park.
Turkey Technology Development Zones
Support program
Tax-advantaged tech zones hosting software and R&D companies.

UC Berkeley
University program
Public research university behind Apache Spark, RISC and many startups.

University of Cambridge
University program
English university at the heart of the Cambridge technology cluster.

University of Oxford
University program
English university with a growing number of deep tech spin-outs.

University of Tabriz
University program
One of Iran's oldest universities, in the northwest.

University of Tehran
University program
Iran's oldest modern university, with incubators and an entrepreneurship faculty.
University of Tehran Science and Technology Park
Science and technology park
Technology park and incubator of the University of Tehran.

University of Tokyo
University program
Japan's leading university, with its own venture capital arm.

UnternehmerTUM
University program
Europe's largest university-linked startup centre, at TU Munich.
Vice Presidency for Science and Technology
Support program
Government body that certifies knowledge-based companies and runs national innovation programs.
Yazd Science and Technology Park
Science and technology park
Science and technology park in Yazd with a focus on industry and energy.