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Companies›Bale

Bale

FintechBank Melli Iran ›In the registry
Entity IDIR-CO-2162
SectorFintech
Founded2016
HQTehran
VerificationCorroborated
Last reviewed2026-08-11

Messaging and fintech super-app developed by Bank Melli Iran; integrates chat with a wallet (Giban), bill payments and in-app commerce. ~16.5M monthly active users (2023).

Doing business with Bale? Check who legally owns and runs it: registry identity, capital and current board from the Official Gazette, in English with the Persian source, in three working days for USD 750. Full dossier with audited figures and competitors, USD 3,000. Order a Bale registry check · see a free sample

SnapshotMetricsBusinessGroupOwnershipCompetitorsTimelineGapsSources
Decision snapshot
Initial release
First released in 2016-17
2016-17Third-party reported
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29
Developer
Sadad (سداد)
CurrentThird-party reported
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29
Entity type
Bank-owned digital platform / brand, not a standalone company
CurrentTI derived
Tehran Index classification · retrieved 2026-07-27

Every field carries an explicit evidence state and its source. Self-reported figures are labelled as such; nothing is presented with more certainty than its source supports.

Operating metrics, period-stamped
Installs (Cafe Bazaar)Cumulative to 19 February 2026Third-party reported
31 million installs on Cafe Bazaar, cumulative to 19 February 2026
Persian Wikipedia, citing Cafe Bazaar ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29The article attributes the figure to Cafe Bazaar alone and counts installs, not active users; the date is the end of the Persian month the article names. It separately calls Bale the third prominent Iranian messenger after Rubika and Eita, without saying by what measure.
Business model & group
Core productsCurrentThird-party reported
Messaging, interactive and financial services. The financial side covers money transfers, money requests, gift envelopes, bill payments and mobile top-ups.
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29Corrected 29 September 2026: the entry previously also listed voice and video calls, channels, groups, stickers, bots and more than 20 integrated banks, none of which the linked article states.
PlatformsCurrentThird-party reported
Android, iOS, Windows, Web, PWA
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29Read from the article's infobox.
Corporate family
Bank Melli Iran
BaamFintech

Tracked entities in the same corporate family. Ownership percentages appear in Ownership & capital only when disclosed.

Ownership & capital
Brand to operator, on the state e-commerce registerOfficial record
The licence holder of this domain is فناوری اطلاعات راهبر سداد فارس. The passage is quoted verbatim in the source passage.
eNamad business certificate, Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-17The eNamad certificate is issued against the domain, so it ties the brand to the company without relying on name similarity. Certificate granted 26 June 2019, valid until 23 July 2027. A second attempt to read it on 20 September could not reach the source, so this rests on a single read and is not corroborated.
Registered capital (latest Official Gazette capital notice)Latest capital notice, published 27 August 2026; notices checked to 27 August 2026Official record
The most recent capital notice in the Official Gazette, published in gazette 23713 (Tehran edition) on 27 August 2026, records an extraordinary general meeting of 7 May 2026 that raised the capital of فناوری اطلاعات راهبر سداد فارس from 219,150,000,000 rial to 2,100,000,000,000 rial, in 210,000,000 shares of 10,000 rial each, entirely from claims owed to shareholders that had fallen due. Registered capital is a nominal legal figure and is not a valuation.
Official Gazette of the Islamic Republic of Iran, legal-notices portal, notice detail ↗ · retrieved 2026-10-08Read directly on the Official Gazette legal-notices portal on 8 October 2026. All 35 notices the portal lists for the company were opened; this is the newest. فناوری اطلاعات راهبر سداد فارس is the licence holder the state e-commerce register names for the Bale domain, and the Gazette prints the national identifier the record holds. The newest chief executive appointment among the notices ran to 18 April 2025, and no later appointment has been published.
Competitive set
DirectArticle read 1 October 2026Third-party reported
Rubika and Eitaa, the two Iranian messengers that Persian Wikipedia places ahead of Bale
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-10-01Persian Wikipedia calls Bale the third major Iranian messenger after Rubika and Eitaa. It gives no install or user figures for that ranking, so the order is the encyclopedia's, not a measured share.
Signals & timeline, Bale mentions
2026-08-30Bale Messenger Removed from Iranian App Stores Over Revenue Dispute2026-07-21Bale messaging app market share surges from 9% to over 60%2026-07-18Bale has 60,000 active businesses and handles 400 million daily messages2026-06-30Bale Messenger removed from Cafe Bazaar due to financial dispute

From the published signal feed; each record links to its source. All signals →

What we don't know
Not disclosedNot disclosed
Bank-owned, financials likely absorbed into Bank Melli's own statements

Stated gaps are part of the record: in an opaque market, knowing what is NOT publicly established is as decision-relevant as what is.

Source ledger, every field, its evidence
Initial releaseThird-party reported2016-17
First released in 2016-17
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29retrieved 2026-09-29
DeveloperThird-party reportedCurrent
Sadad (سداد)
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29retrieved 2026-09-29
Brand to operator, on the state e-commerce registerOfficial record
The licence holder of this domain is فناوری اطلاعات راهبر سداد فارس. The passage is quoted verbatim in the source passage.
eNamad business certificate, Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-17retrieved 2026-09-17
Entity typeTI derivedCurrent
Bank-owned digital platform / brand, not a standalone company
Tehran Index classification · retrieved 2026-07-27retrieved 2026-07-27
Registered capital (latest Official Gazette capital notice)Official recordLatest capital notice, published 27 August 2026; notices checked to 27 August 2026
The most recent capital notice in the Official Gazette, published in gazette 23713 (Tehran edition) on 27 August 2026, records an extraordinary general meeting of 7 May 2026 that raised the capital of فناوری اطلاعات راهبر سداد فارس from 219,150,000,000 rial to 2,100,000,000,000 rial, in 210,000,000 shares of 10,000 rial each, entirely from claims owed to shareholders that had fallen due. Registered capital is a nominal legal figure and is not a valuation.
Official Gazette of the Islamic Republic of Iran, legal-notices portal, notice detail ↗ · retrieved 2026-10-08retrieved 2026-10-08
Core productsThird-party reportedCurrent
Messaging, interactive and financial services. The financial side covers money transfers, money requests, gift envelopes, bill payments and mobile top-ups.
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29retrieved 2026-09-29
PlatformsThird-party reportedCurrent
Android, iOS, Windows, Web, PWA
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29retrieved 2026-09-29
Installs (Cafe Bazaar)Third-party reportedCumulative to 19 February 2026
31 million installs on Cafe Bazaar, cumulative to 19 February 2026
Persian Wikipedia, citing Cafe Bazaar ↗ · retrieved 2026-09-29retrieved 2026-09-29
DirectThird-party reportedArticle read 1 October 2026
Rubika and Eitaa, the two Iranian messengers that Persian Wikipedia places ahead of Bale
Persian Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-10-01retrieved 2026-10-01

Last full review: 2026-08-11 · Tehran Index research desk · corrections: desk@tehranindex.com

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Registered entity
OwnershipDeveloped and owned by Bank Melli Iran
Entity notesBANK PRODUCT: messaging and payments app whose financial infrastructure is provided by Bank Melli Iran (state-owned). Kept as a product row per Mehdi's 2026-08-11 scope decision; the bank itself gets no row and no registry anchoring.
Evidence & verification
Verification tierCorroborated, two or more independent sources
Primary evidenceen.wikipedia.org
Registry identifiersWithheld for compliance

Fields on this profile derive from linked public sources or the official company registry; unknown values stay blank rather than guessed, and estimates are always labelled. How we verify →

Quick facts
Tehran, Iran
Founded 2016
bale.aiLinkedIn
Company dossier

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TI Weekly. Five source-linked developments and one analysis note, every Friday.