Cafe Bazaar
VerifiedEntity IDIR-CO-003
SectorApp Dist.
Founded2011
HQTehran
VerificationVerified
Last reviewed2026-08-13
One of Iran's largest Android app marketplaces.
Tehran Index tracks this company as part of a source-linked research record on Iran’s technology economy. Access opens to a limited first cohort. Register for access, or browse the registry.
Decision snapshot
Ownership
Acquired by Tapsell (Pegah Holding) on 24 January 2025; Hezardastan exited to focus on Divar
2025-01Third-party reported
PitchBook; intellinews ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10
Deal price
~2 hemmat (≈2,000B toman ≈ $25M at the ~80,000 toman/$ period rate), stated on record by the buyer's CEO
2025-01Company disclosed
Tapsell CEO, on-record video interview (timestamped) ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10
2017 valuation anchor
EUR 38M for 10% of Cafe Bazaar Group (then including Divar) implies ~EUR 380M pre-money
2017-Q4Third-party reported
Pomegranate Investment Q4 2017 update ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10
Registered capital
500,000,000,000 IRR (50 billion toman). Registered capital is a nominal legal figure and is not a valuation.
Current registry recordOfficial record
National Company Registry via Rasmio ↗ · retrieved 2026-08-05
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
Platform scale2024-25Company disclosed
Up to 50 million monthly active users on Bazaar in 2024-25. The same report puts Iran's smartphone base at 68 million and Android users at 61 million, roughly 90% of smartphone users, against a population above 85 million. Fastest-growing app category by monthly actives was food and restaurants, up 160%.
Domestic market share2023-24 installs; range as reportedThird-party reported
About 92% of domestic Android app installs; separately reported at roughly 85% to 97% of Iran's Android app-store market depending on the category measured.
Post-acquisition disclosures2025-2026Not disclosed
None published since the January 2025 sale
Platform position (to April 2025)To 30 April 2025Third-party reported
Reported as retaining its position as Iran's leading digital platform with the largest base of unique active monthly users in the country, and as the dominant Iranian app store. No absolute user figure was disclosed.
Business model & group
ModelDurableThird-party reported
Iran's dominant local Android app store: distribution, in-app billing, promoted placement, developer services
Strategic roleCurrentTI derived
The store the Tehran Index App Index series is captured from weekly; platform-level shifts (e.g. the 2026 Bale delisting dispute) surface on our signal feed
Leadership
FoundersDurableThird-party reported
Reza Mohammadi & Hessam Armandehi (April 2011, within the Cafe Bazaar/Hezardastan family)
LeadershipCurrentNot disclosed
Pre-sale CEO: Manoochehr Sadri (registry). Post-acquisition leadership not disclosed
Corporate family
Tracked entities in the same corporate family. Ownership percentages appear in Ownership & capital only when disclosed.
Ownership & capital
Owner chain2025,Third-party reported
Tapsell → Pegah Dade Kavan Sharif (Pegah Holding; portfolio also includes Metrix and Fundorly)
Ownership change: acquired by Tapsell, and the former foreign shareholdingFormer structure as at 30 April 2025; acquisition subsequentOfficial record
Cafe Bazaar was acquired by Tapsell, whose holding company is Pegah Holding. It previously sat within the Hezardastan group alongside Divar. A Swedish listed investor reported a combined look-through economic interest of 4.3% across Cafe Bazaar and Divar as at 30 April 2025, held indirectly through Iran Internet International Holding, and flagged a group restructuring as under way and unresolved at that date. That restructuring was this acquisition.
Competitive set
Competitive setCurrentTI derived
Myket (primary store rival) · Sibche / Sibapp (iOS-focused stores)
Evidence timeline, how this record was built
2025-04-11Executive interviewExecutive interview, Sobhan Foroughi (Tapsell) ↗, Sobhan Foroughi3 records
Primary sources catalogued in the Evidence Library; extracted claims appear above as period-stamped facts, never as current news.
Signals & timeline, Cafe Bazaar mentions
From the published signal feed; each record links to its source. All signals →
What we don't know
Current installed base and developer countNot disclosed
Written deal termsNot disclosed
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
Ownership
Acquired by Tapsell (Pegah Holding) on 24 January 2025; Hezardastan exited to focus on Divar
PitchBook; intellinews ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Platform scale
Up to 50 million monthly active users on Bazaar in 2024-25. The same report puts Iran's smartphone base at 68 million and Android users at 61 million, roughly 90% of smartphone users, against a population above 85 million. Fastest-growing app category by monthly actives was food and restaurants, up 160%.
Cafe Bazaar / Bazaar annual market report 1403 (2024-25), read directly · retrieved 2026-08-03retrieved 2026-08-03
Domestic market share
About 92% of domestic Android app installs; separately reported at roughly 85% to 97% of Iran's Android app-store market depending on the category measured.
Persian tech press; third-party market coverage · retrieved 2026-08-03retrieved 2026-08-03
Deal price
~2 hemmat (≈2,000B toman ≈ $25M at the ~80,000 toman/$ period rate), stated on record by the buyer's CEO
Tapsell CEO, on-record video interview (timestamped) ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
2017 valuation anchor
EUR 38M for 10% of Cafe Bazaar Group (then including Divar) implies ~EUR 380M pre-money
Pomegranate Investment Q4 2017 update ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Registered capital
500,000,000,000 IRR (50 billion toman). Registered capital is a nominal legal figure and is not a valuation.
National Company Registry via Rasmio ↗ · retrieved 2026-08-05retrieved 2026-08-05
Post-acquisition disclosures
None published since the January 2025 sale
retrieved 2026-07-10
Model
Iran's dominant local Android app store: distribution, in-app billing, promoted placement, developer services
Wikipedia; store documentation ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Strategic role
The store the Tehran Index App Index series is captured from weekly; platform-level shifts (e.g. the 2026 Bale delisting dispute) surface on our signal feed
Tehran Index App Index · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Founders
Reza Mohammadi & Hessam Armandehi (April 2011, within the Cafe Bazaar/Hezardastan family)
Wikipedia ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Leadership
Pre-sale CEO: Manoochehr Sadri (registry). Post-acquisition leadership not disclosed
retrieved 2026-07-10
Owner chain
Tapsell → Pegah Dade Kavan Sharif (Pegah Holding; portfolio also includes Metrix and Fundorly)
PitchBook ↗ · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Competitive set
Myket (primary store rival) · Sibche / Sibapp (iOS-focused stores)
Tehran Index registry mapping · retrieved 2026-07-10retrieved 2026-07-10
Platform position (to April 2025)
Reported as retaining its position as Iran's leading digital platform with the largest base of unique active monthly users in the country, and as the dominant Iranian app store. No absolute user figure was disclosed.
Pomegranate Investment AB (publ), audited Annual Report 2024/25 ↗ · retrieved 2026-08-13retrieved 2026-08-13
Ownership change: acquired by Tapsell, and the former foreign shareholding
Cafe Bazaar was acquired by Tapsell, whose holding company is Pegah Holding. It previously sat within the Hezardastan group alongside Divar. A Swedish listed investor reported a combined look-through economic interest of 4.3% across Cafe Bazaar and Divar as at 30 April 2025, held indirectly through Iran Internet International Holding, and flagged a group restructuring as under way and unresolved at that date. That restructuring was this acquisition.
Pomegranate Investment AB (publ), audited Annual Report 2024/25 ↗ · retrieved 2026-08-13retrieved 2026-08-13
Last full review: 2026-08-13 · Tehran Index research desk · corrections: desk@tehranindex.com
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Registered entity
Legal entityAvaye Hamrah Hooshmand Hezardastan
Entity typeoperating
StatusActive
Registered1392/10/14 (2014-01-04)
Registered capital500 billion IRR
OwnershipAcquired by Tapsell (Pegah group); deal completed 22 Jan 2025. Hezardastan retained Divar.
Entity notesGROUP CORRECTED 2026-08-13 from "Pegah Holding" to "Hezardastan". Three independent lines of evidence: the registered legal name is آوای همراه هوشمند هزاردستان, which carries the holding name inside it; Pomegranate Investment's audited annual report to 30 April 2025 lists the holding as HEZARDASTAN (CAFE BAZAAR AND DIVAR) in its look-through interest table; and the sibling records Divar, Sotoon and Karnameh already sat under Hezardastan. Pegah Holding is پگاه داده کاوان شریف, the parent of Tapsell, and is a different group. Note that the same shareholder report calls the group "Cafe Bazaar Group" in its prose, which is a brand shorthand rather than the legal structure, and following the prose over the table is how this class of error happens. CORRECTION OF A CORRECTION, same session 2026-08-13. The group was briefly changed to Hezardastan on the strength of Pomegranate Investment's audited report to 30 April 2025, which lists the holding as HEZARDASTAN (CAFE BAZAAR AND DIVAR). Mehdi caught it: Cafe Bazaar was subsequently ACQUIRED BY TAPSELL, whose holding company is Pegah Holding, so Pegah Holding was the current and correct value and Hezardastan is the historic one. Reverted. The same shareholder report flags "a corporate restructuring process launched during and shortly after the reporting period, ongoing" without naming it; that restructuring is this acquisition. LESSON: a document dated April 2025 does not outrank a record that already knows about a later event. The registered legal name آوای همراه هوشمند هزاردستان still carries the former holding's name and will keep suggesting Hezardastan to anyone reading the entity name alone.
Registered capital is the share capital recorded in the official gazette. Increases are real corporate events, but they are commonly funded from retained earnings or converted receivables and are also driven by inflation and regulatory minimums. It is not a valuation, and Tehran Index does not present it as one.
Official contact
Registered addressNo. 8, Peyvand 2 St, Farhang Blvd, Saadat Abad, Tehran, Iran (3rd floor)
Postal code1997748311
Phone021-88372311
Emailinfo@cafebazaar.ir
Instagram@cafebazaar
Evidence & verification
Verification tierVerified, registry / official source
Primary evidencecafebazaar.ir
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 →
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