Iranian Firms Are Paying 46% to Raise Money – and Crowdfunding Just Hit a Record

Iranian companies raised a record 4,092 billion tomans - roughly $19.5 million at the open-market exchange rate in late August 2026, the freely traded rate that nearly all Iranian prices track - through crowdfunding platforms in the month to Aug. 22, and paid an average return of about 46% to do it, the highest average in the market’s history.

The figures come from the crowdfunding data tracker CrowdPlus. The month-on-month rise was 38%, up from 2,975 billion tomans, about $14.2 million, in the preceding Iranian month, which ran from June 22 to July 22. The toman is Iran’s everyday currency unit, worth 10 rials.

The return rate is the story, not the record

The 46% figure is the more revealing of the two. It is the price Iranian firms are paying for capital, and it climbed at the same time as volume - meaning companies kept borrowing more even as it got more expensive, and retail investors demanded that much before parting with their money. A market where both the quantity and the price of credit rise together is one where cheaper sources have stopped clearing demand.

Crowdfunding in Iran is not the rewards-based model familiar elsewhere. Platforms are licensed by the Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran and operate through the country’s over-the-counter market, raising money from retail investors to finance specific company projects at a stated rate of return. That structure is why a market-wide average return exists as a number at all.

It seems, the shift attributes to inflation and to the cost of raising money through other channels, which may make crowdfunding a justifiable option for some firms.