AÏZA parent Amaani raises $5 million Series A for GCC expansion
BECO Capital led the round, with Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV's Surge participating. Saudi Arabia is the first target.
Anecdoted Desk Anecdoted Desk covers rolling funding rounds and startup news across the UAE and MENA -- the wire for deals as they're announced. team@anecdoted.com
Amaani, the Dubai-based consumer company behind beauty brand AÏZA, has closed a $5 million Series A round led by BECO Capital. Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV's Surge also took part, taking Amaani's total raised to $8 million.
From seed to Series A in a year
The company raised a $3 million seed round in September 2025, led by Peak XV's Surge, to fund AÏZA's launch. Amaani was founded in 2023 by Shubham Poddar, who previously worked at Sequoia Capital India. AÏZA, its first skincare and haircare line, went live in December 2024.
The brand's formulations lean on ingredients tied to the region, among them dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor. AÏZA develops those products with laboratories in Korea, Japan and Italy.
In the first half of 2026, AÏZA's net revenue grew more than nine times compared with the same period a year earlier. That growth came as the business moved beyond its digital-first origins into physical retail. The brand now sells through its own site, aiza.co, as well as Ounass and Ulta Beauty stores in the UAE, where it sits inside the top 10 across a set of more than 300 global and regional brands. It was also included in BeautyMatter's NEXT50, a yearly list of 50 emerging beauty and wellness companies, the first Middle Eastern brand to appear on it.
Saudi Arabia first
The new capital is earmarked for expansion into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, plus further spending on product development, hiring and the technology systems behind the operation. Saudi Arabia is the immediate priority. AÏZA will open with Ulta Beauty at Red Sea Mall in Jeddah and Riyadh Park in Riyadh at the end of September, with Kuwait and Qatar expected to follow in the fourth quarter.
Poddar, the founder and chief executive, said he left Sequoia Capital India three years ago on the view that the region had become one of the world's most sophisticated markets for global beauty products, while too few ambitious brands were being built around its own beauty culture. AÏZA, he said, was set up to address that gap, with original products that meet formulation standards high enough to compete anywhere. The funding, he added, lets the company deepen its UAE base, move across the GCC and start showing that a brand born in the region can travel well beyond it.
Abdulaziz Shikh Al Sagha, managing partner at BECO Capital, said the firm had spent several years studying beauty and wellness in the Gulf and the wider Middle East, looking for brands founded locally with the operating discipline to scale outside the region. He said Amaani pairs that discipline with an understanding of regional consumer demand, which gave BECO the conviction to invest at this stage.
Nader Amiri, co-founder and managing partner at Homegrown Ventures, said a strong story can win a first purchase in consumer brands, but products and execution drive repeat business. He said AÏZA has both, and that the team is writing its own playbook from the region rather than importing a global one.
Amaani describes its model as digital-first, using technology and AI for creative testing, customer analytics, performance marketing and operational planning.
