Amaani secures USD 5M funding to expand AÏZA across GCC region
BECO Capital led the investment round, with participation from Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV’s Surge, bringing Amaani’s total raised capital to USD 8 million.
UAE – Amaani, the Dubai-based company behind the Middle Eastern beauty brand AÏZA, has secured USD 5 million in Series A funding to accelerate its expansion across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and beyond.
The new funding will support AÏZA’s rollout across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, alongside continued investment in product development, talent, and technology infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia is the priority market in this next phase, with the brand set to launch at Ulta Beauty locations in Red Sea Mall (Jeddah) and Riyadh Park (Riyadh) at the end of September 2026. Kuwait and Qatar are expected to follow in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Founded in Dubai and officially launched in December 2024, AÏZA is a skincare and haircare brand inspired by the ingredients, rituals, and cultural heritage of the Arab world, designed to compete with leading global beauty brands.
In the first half of 2026, the brand reported more than a ninefold year-on-year increase in net revenue as it transitioned from a digital-first operation to a regional retail presence.
AÏZA is currently available through its own website (aiza.co), luxury e-tailer Ounass, and Ulta Beauty stores in the UAE, where it ranks among the top 10 brands out of more than 300 global and regional competitors.
The brand was also named to BeautyMatter’s NEXT50 list, making it the first and only Middle Eastern brand included in this annual global roundup of 50 emerging beauty and wellness companies to watch.
Shubham Poddar, Founder and CEO of Amaani, explained that he left Sequoia Capital India three years ago with the belief that while the Middle East had become one of the world’s most sophisticated beauty markets, very few globally ambitious brands were built around the region’s own beauty culture.
The brand reinterprets regional ingredients such as dates, black seed, frankincense, rose, and bakhoor through modern skincare and haircare formulations developed in partnership with laboratories in Korea, Japan, and Italy.
Amaani combines these regional roots with a tech-enabled, digital-first operating model, using AI and data across creative testing, customer analytics, performance marketing, and operational planning to scale quickly and efficiently.
Amaani is a Dubai-headquartered consumer company founded in 2023 by Shubham Poddar to build the next generation of brands from the Middle East for the region and the world.
Before founding Amaani, Poddar worked at Bain & Company and Sequoia Capital India, where he was involved in the firm’s expansion into the Middle East and investments in companies such as Tabby, Huspy, Foodics, and Lean Technologies.
He was named to the Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list in 2025.
AÏZA, Amaani’s first brand, is a skincare and haircare line inspired by the ingredients, rituals, and spirit of Arabia.
Its products are alcohol-free and cruelty-free, with vegan formulas except where honey or milk-derived ingredients are used, and are formulated to leading global clean beauty standards.
AÏZA was created to fill that gap, offering original products rooted in Arabian ingredients and rituals but formulated to global clean beauty standards.
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