Amaani Raises $5M Series A to Push AÏZA Across the Gulf
The UAE company behind skincare label AÏZA has closed a Series A led by BECO Capital and is targeting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
Amaani, the UAE-based company behind the skincare and haircare label AÏZA, has closed a $5 million Series A round. BECO Capital led the raise, with Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV’s Surge taking part.
The new capital takes Amaani’s total funding to $8 million. Its earlier seed round, worth $3 million, was led by Peak XV’s Surge — the fund formerly known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA — in September 2025.
AÏZA was founded in 2023 by Shubham Poddar. The brand builds its formulas around ingredients and rituals tied to the Arabian Peninsula, reworking dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor into contemporary skincare and haircare lines. The formulations are developed with laboratories in Korea, Japan and Italy. Technology and AI sit behind much of the operation, spanning creative testing, customer analytics, marketing and daily operations.
Nader Amiri, co-founder and managing partner at Homegrown Ventures, said the team is writing its own playbook from the region instead of transplanting one built elsewhere, and that AÏZA demonstrates a brand can be rooted in the Arab world while matching global standards on product quality.
Growth has been steep. AÏZA’s net revenue in the first half of 2026 rose more than ninefold compared with the same period a year earlier, as the business moved past digital-first selling into regional retail. The brand is sold through aiza.co, Ounass and Ulta Beauty outlets in the UAE. Poddar appeared in late 2025 on a list of 30 notable people under 30 working in commerce and finance.
Where the money goes
Amaani will put the proceeds into expansion across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, along with product development, hiring and technology infrastructure. Saudi Arabia is the priority market. AÏZA is set to launch at Ulta Beauty’s Red Sea Mall in Jeddah and at Riyadh Park in Riyadh in late September, with Kuwait and Qatar following in the fourth quarter. The Gulf rollout is framed as a first phase; the company says it intends to move beyond the region as well.
The regional funding backdrop
Startups across the Middle East and North Africa raised $1.7 billion over 242 rounds in the first half of 2026. Fintech drew more capital than any other sector, at $708.7 million across 51 rounds — more than double logistics, which followed with $315 million. Proptech took $241 million across 18 deals. E-commerce came fifth, attracting $75.6 million across 15 rounds, a small slice of the half-year total for the sector closest to Amaani’s business.
