Amaani, the Dubai-based parent company of beauty brand AÏZA, has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by BECO Capital, with participation from Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV's Surge. The round brings Amaani's total funding to $8 million and will back the brand's expansion across the GCC.
AÏZA launched in Dubai in December 2024, building skincare and haircare products around ingredients such as dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor, developed with laboratories in Korea, Japan and Italy. In the first half of 2026, the brand's net revenue grew more than 9x year-on-year, and AÏZA now ranks among the top 10 brands across more than 300 global and regional brands in the UAE. It is sold through aiza.co, Ounass and Ulta Beauty in the UAE, and was recently named to BeautyMatter's NEXT50, making it the first and only Middle Eastern brand on the annual global list of 50 emerging beauty and wellness companies.
Why Saudi Arabia is next
The fresh capital is earmarked for expansion beyond the UAE, with Saudi Arabia named as the priority market for AÏZA's next phase of growth. The brand is set to launch with Ulta Beauty at Red Sea Mall in Jeddah and Riyadh Park in Riyadh at the end of September, followed by expansion into Kuwait and Qatar expected in the fourth quarter.
Shubham Poddar, Founder and CEO of Amaani, said: "Three years ago I left Sequoia Capital India with one conviction: the Middle East had become one of the world's most sophisticated consumers of global beauty, but too few globally ambitious brands were built around the region's own beauty culture. AÏZA was created to change that, with original products inspired by the ingredients, rituals and cultural intelligence of Arabia, held to the formulation standards required to compete anywhere. This funding allows us to deepen what we have built in the UAE, expand across the GCC and begin proving that a brand born here can travel far beyond it."
What backers are betting on
Abdulaziz Shikh Al Sagha, Managing Partner at BECO Capital, said: "We examined the beauty and wellness category in the Gulf and broader Middle East for a number of years, looking for brands built here with the operating discipline to scale beyond the region. Amaani combines that discipline with a deep understanding of what regional consumers want. That combination gave us the conviction to back Shubham and the team at this stage of their journey."
Nader Amiri, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Homegrown Ventures, added: "In consumer brands, a compelling story may drive the first purchase, but great products and execution are what bring customers back. AÏZA has both. The team is building original products rooted in the region's ingredients and rituals, while executing with a level of discipline that is rare at this stage. Rather than importing an established global playbook into the Middle East, Shubham and the team are building one from here. AÏZA is showing that a brand can be authentically rooted in the Arab world and still have the ambition and product quality to compete globally."
