Dubai’s AÏZA Secures $5M to Drive MENA Beauty Expansion and Global Growth

Amaani, the Dubai-based company behind beauty brand AÏZA, has secured $5 million in Series A funding as it pushes further across the Gulf and starts laying ground for wider international growth. The round was led by BECO Capital, with backing as well from Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV’s Surge, taking the company’s total funding so far to $8 million.

It is a notable step for a brand that only launched in December 2024. Since then, AÏZA has been trying to do something many founders in the region talk about, but fewer actually pull off: build a consumer brand from the Middle East that does not just fit local shelves, but can stand shoulder to shoulder with global names. In the first half of 2026, the company said its net revenue rose more than ninefold year on year in the UAE, as it moved from a digital-first setup into physical retail too.

Today, AÏZA sells through its own website, Ounass and Ulta Beauty in the UAE. The brand says it ranks among the top 10 across a field of more than 300 regional and international beauty labels there. It was also included in BeautyMatter’s NEXT50 list, becoming the first Middle Eastern brand to make that annual selection of emerging beauty and wellness companies to watch. That is no small feat, and I reckon it says something about how quickly regional brands are sharpening up.

Founder and chief executive Shubham Poddar said the idea behind AÏZA came from a gap he noticed years ago: consumers in the Middle East were buying global beauty products in a big way, but there were still too few brands from the region built with similar global ambition. He said the company created AÏZA around Arabian ingredients, rituals and cultural references, while keeping product standards high enough to compete internationally. This new funding, he added, will help Amaani strengthen what it has already built in the UAE, expand across the GCC and test whether a homegrown brand can travel well beyond its roots.

The product line leans heavily into ingredients closely tied to the region, including dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor, but gives them a more modern skincare and haircare treatment. Formulations have been developed with laboratories in Korea, Japan and Italy, a detail that stands out because it shows the company is not only selling a story. In consumer brands, that can be the real sticking point: nice branding is spot on for the first purchase, but repeat customers usually come back for quality, not poetry.

Amaani also says it uses technology and artificial intelligence across areas such as creative testing, customer analytics, performance marketing and operations planning. That may sound a bit buzzy at first glance, well… I mean, every startup says that these days, but in beauty it could matter if it helps the business move quicker and avoid the usual faff that comes with scaling both online and offline.

BECO Capital’s managing partner Abdulaziz Shikh Al Sagha said the investor had studied the beauty and wellness market in the Gulf and wider Middle East for years, looking for a locally built brand with the operational discipline to expand beyond the region. He said Amaani’s understanding of regional consumers, paired with that discipline, convinced the firm to back Poddar and his team at this stage.

Nader Amiri, co-founder and managing partner at Homegrown Ventures, made a similar point. He said a strong brand story can win the first sale, but good products and execution are what bring shoppers back. According to Amiri, AÏZA combines both, while building its model from the region rather than importing an established one from elsewhere. On the flip side, that path is never easy, but it can create a moat if done right.

The fresh capital will go into expansion in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, while also supporting product development, hiring and the technology stack behind the business. Saudi Arabia is the immediate priority. AÏZA is set to launch with Ulta Beauty at Red Sea Mall in Jeddah and Riyadh Park in Riyadh by the end of September, with Kuwait and Qatar expected to follow in the fourth quarter.

Poddar founded Amaani in 2023 after earlier roles at Bain & Company and Sequoia Capital India, where he worked on the firm’s Middle East expansion and was involved in investments including Tabby, Huspy, Foodics and Lean Technologies. He was also named to the Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list in 2025. For readers who follow Arageek, this is the kind of story that feels chuffed to bits for the regional startup scene: not because it is flashy, but because it hints at something more durable. A consumer brand from Dubai trying to go global is not exactly a walk in the park, but it is definately a sign of a maturing market.

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