The closing ceremony of “Navatek,” a startup event focused on identifying and empowering technology teams, was held with product demonstrations by selected teams and the signing of 10 preliminary cooperation memoranda between Fanavaran Group (Fanava) and participating startups. The agreements are expected to pave the way for product development, market access, investment discussions, and commercial partnerships.
Organized jointly by QueRa, a knowledge-based technology company, and Fanavaran Group, Navatek was designed to identify promising technology teams and help connect them with markets, investors, and established businesses.
The event’s activities began approximately six months ago, attracting nearly 1,200 participants and generating more than 200 teams and project ideas. Following technical and business assessments, team formation, mentoring, idea validation, and product development, around 30 teams advanced to the final stage.
As part of the closing program, the finalist teams showcased their products in an exhibition, while six selected teams took the stage during the Demo Day to present their products, solutions, and business models to industry executives, judges, and investors.
From Technical Talent to Market-Ready Businesses
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Masoud Zandvakili, CEO of Fanavaran Group, said Navatek was launched to identify problem-oriented teams and ideas in the field of artificial intelligence that could leverage technology to develop practical solutions for challenges facing businesses and society.
He pointed to commercialization as one of the key challenges facing technology teams, noting that Iran has a significant pool of skilled professionals, capable university-based teams, and promising ideas, but that turning these capabilities into products and sustainable businesses requires a clear pathway to market, access to infrastructure, and investment.
Zandvakili said one of the key distinctions of Navatek was its focus on continuing support for teams beyond the closing ceremony. According to him, the event’s conclusion does not mark the end of the teams’ journey. Teams with the potential for market expansion and economic development will move into more detailed evaluation, negotiations, and partnership design.
10 Preliminary Agreements Open the Door to Further Negotiations
At the end of the event, 10 selected teams signed preliminary cooperation memoranda with Fanavaran Group.
The agreements do not represent finalized investment commitments. Rather, they mark the beginning of a new stage in which the teams’ market potential, business models, legal structures, capital requirements, and potential forms of support will be assessed in greater detail.
According to the organizers, the partnership model for each team will be determined based on its development stage, needs, and commercial potential. Possible forms of cooperation include equity investment, project-based partnerships, access to technical and computing infrastructure, business development support, and market access.
Zandvakili explained that support mechanisms could range from direct financial investment and equity participation to project partnerships, business development, and the provision of technical infrastructure.
The support package envisioned for selected teams also includes specialized mentoring, acceleration services, workspace, legal advisory, technical infrastructure, financial facilities, and market development. Depending on the needs and potential of each team, investment and support packages of up to IRR 100 billion are expected to be considered.
Bridging Education, Team Building, Product Development and Business
One of Navatek’s central objectives was to create a link between technical talent, education, product development, and business creation.
Participants were assessed based on technical and business capabilities, after which individuals with complementary expertise—including software engineering, artificial intelligence, product management, and business development—were brought together to form teams.
The teams then went through a process of mentoring, problem and idea validation, and product development, with the objective of moving promising concepts beyond the idea stage toward usable and market-oriented products.
Rather than focusing solely on the attractiveness of an idea, the program required teams to demonstrate that they had identified a genuine problem, developed a technically viable solution, and created a product with the potential to generate economic value in the market.
AI Solutions Addressing Real-World Challenges
The solutions presented at Navatek covered a diverse range of applications, including language-model security, smart agriculture, tourism, healthcare, and financial technology.
Among the participating teams was “Haft-Khan,” a student-led team that developed a platform for cybersecurity education and vulnerability assessment of language models. The platform uses a seven-stage interactive learning journey to introduce users to penetration testing and language-model security. It can also provide organizations and technical teams with an environment for testing the security of Persian-language models and collecting locally relevant data on potential attacks.
In agriculture, the “Dadeh Kesht Novin” team developed an AI- and machine-learning-powered decision-support system that analyzes farmland conditions using soil-moisture sensors and satellite imagery. The system provides farmers with recommendations on irrigation, input consumption, and harvesting, with the aim of reducing water use and production costs while mitigating risks such as drought, frost, and crop diseases.
In tourism, the “Boomro” team introduced a personalized domestic travel-planning platform that analyzes users’ budgets, interests, and time constraints to generate customized itineraries and provide access to required travel services and bookings through a single platform.
The diversity of these solutions demonstrates that some Navatek teams have progressed beyond the initial idea stage and have already developed usable prototypes, attracted early users, or entered discussions with potential markets.
A New Generation of Technology Teams
The participation of high-school students, university students, and graduates from universities across Iran was another notable feature of Navatek.
Teams and participants associated with universities including Sharif University of Technology, the University of Tehran, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and other academic institutions took part alongside independent technology teams and young innovators.
One notable example was a team of 11th-grade students that developed a solution focused on language-model security, demonstrating the potential for young technology talent to enter innovation and technology entrepreneurship at an early stage.
According to the organizers, the presence of such teams highlights the importance of combining technical talent with access to mentoring, infrastructure, capital, and market opportunities in order to turn early-stage capabilities into sustainable technology businesses.
The Closing Ceremony as a New Starting Point
Overall, more than 200 teams and project ideas emerged during the different stages of Navatek. Around 30 teams reached the final stage, while six teams presented their products and business models during the main Demo Day. The organizers also announced total cash prizes of IRR 3.5 billion for the top three teams.
However, the most significant outcome of Navatek may lie in what happens after the closing ceremony.
With 10 preliminary cooperation memoranda now signed between selected teams and Fanavaran Group, the participating startups have entered a new phase of detailed assessment and partnership negotiations.
The organizers have announced that further discussions between the teams, Fanavaran Group, and other investors and industry players will continue following the event. The objective is to determine an appropriate model of support and cooperation for each team based on its development stage, commercial potential, and market needs.
In this sense, Navatek has sought to move beyond the conventional startup-event model—where the process ends with announcing winners—and instead create a bridge connecting talent, technology, capital, and market.
The ultimate impact of this journey, however, will be measured not by the closing ceremony itself, but by how many of these preliminary agreements eventually translate into products, commercial contracts, investment deals, and sustainable technology businesses.
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