Purpose: Crowdfunding has grown rapidly worldwide as a channel for fast, accessible financing of small and knowledge-based ventures. In Iran, the industry is regulated exclusively by the Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) under a single, participation-based directive, yet platforms, investors, fund-seekers, and the regulator each report persistent operational, competitive, regulatory, and Shariah-related difficulties. This study identifies and classifies the barriers to the development of Iran's crowdfunding industry and derives policy implications.
Design/methodology/approach: The study applies a thematic-analysis design to material gathered from repeated expert focus-group sessions, semi-structured interviews with platform managers, investors, and Shariah scholars, and documentary review of the Crowdfunding Directive, related regulations, and the domestic and international literature. Coded material was organized into a basic-theme / organizing-theme / global-theme structure and cross-checked against prior barrier taxonomies.
Findings: Twenty-five unique basic themes were identified and grouped under four organizing themes: structural and technical deficiencies; inefficiency in policy-making, regulation, and market operations; an unhealthy competitive environment; and non-compliance with Shariah. The regulator's insistence on a single participatory (mosharekah) contractual template emerges as a structural root cause connecting several other barriers, including rate-fixing difficulties, debt-rescheduling concerns, and the crowding-out of small platforms and fund-seekers.