Siin Raises $3M to Ignite Live Shopping Boom in the Gulf

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 5-05-2026

4 min

Siin secures funding, taking total raised to 3 million dollars.

The Saudi startup bets MENA shopping is “social, interactive, and trust-driven”.

It blends livestreams and gamified features to recreate digital souqs.

Operating in six Gulf countries, it reports strong early traction.

New capital will expand markets and strengthen its “trust and safety layer”.

Siin, a Saudi-born live shopping marketplace, has secured fresh funding that brings its total capital raised to $3 million, as it doubles down on live commerce across the Gulf. The round was led by VentureSouq and Shift Group, with participation from Plus VC and Oqal, alongside regional investors including Suhail Al Gossaibi, Mussab Al Hakami and Abdulla Al Hashmi.

The company, founded in 2024 by Hesham AlSaati, formerly of Delivery Hero, Ahmed Allawi, previously at Tap Payments, and Khaled Albalooshi, ex-Telp, is betting big on the idea that shopping in the Middle East has always been social at heart. Siin is also backed by Hub71 in Abu Dhabi and InspireU, the accelerator programme run by stc in Saudi Arabia.

Live commerce is not a new concept globally. It has been booming in parts of Asia for years, blending entertainment and retail in a way that feels more like a show than a checkout page. But in MENA, it is still early days. And that’s where Siin sees its opening.

“Commerce in MENA was never transactional; it’s social, interactive, and trust-driven,” said co-founder Ahmed Allawi. He pointed to the region’s long-standing culture of souqs and majalis, spaces where buying and selling is as much about relationships as it is about price. Siin’s model, he explained, is about rebuilding that experience for a digital-first generation through livestreams and gamified interactions.

I’ve always felt that startups win here when they understand culture first, tech second. It’s something we often talk about at Arageek when covering founders trying to crack the code of trust in online markets. In many ways, e-commerce in the region has grown fast, but the human layer sometimes feels… missing, you know?

Siin claims strong early traction. In less than a year, the platform has expanded into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. According to co-founder Hesham AlSaati, the company has facilitated the sale of hundreds of thousands of items and delivered tens of thousands of hours of live streaming. That, he said, signals healthy engagement and marketplace liquidity, a term investors love because it shows buyers and sellers are both active and sticking around.

At its core, Siin allows users to buy and sell high-value goods via livestreamed sessions, with interactive elements woven in. The team argues that as social commerce grows, trust and safety will become central. AlSaati described Siin as building the “trust and safety layer” for this new category in the Gulf, aiming to position itself as the go-to live shopping platform in the region.

The technology has been built entirely in-house, according to Khaled Albalooshi, who said the platform already performs at a level comparable to global players while being tailored specifically for MENA users. That local adaptation could be the secret sauce. Or, at least, that’s the bet.

Investors appear convinced. Suneel Gokhale, General Partner and Co-Founder at VentureSouq, said the team stood out for its ability to localise a global trend in a way that feels native to the region. By translating traditional trading behaviours into live, interactive formats, he noted, Siin is opening up what could become a sizeable new commerce category in the GCC.

Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner at Plus VC, described the platform as more than just another shopping app. In his view, Siin is shaping a new behavioural layer for commerce by digitising culturally ingrained dynamics and combining them with live and AI-driven capabilities. He also pointed to strong network effects, once sellers and buyers gather in one place, momentum can build quickly.

The new capital will go towards expanding further across key Gulf markets and strengthening the seller ecosystem. In plain terms: more inventory, more hosts, more categories. And hopefully more stickiness.

I reckon live commerce in MENA could either become the next big thing or just a flash in the pan. There’s not much middle ground. But with $3 million in total funding, high-profile backers, and a footprint already spanning six countries, Siin is definately giving it a proper go. And in the ever-evolving world of social shopping, that’s half the battle.

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