Amaani raises $5 million to expand AÏZA, betting on technology and local ingredients to test Gulf expansion

Consumer products company Amaani, based in Dubai, raised $5 million in a Series A financing round led by BECO Capital. The round also included Homegrown Ventures and the Surge program of Peak XV’s fund. The company will use the funding to support the regional expansion phase of its beauty brand AÏZA across Gulf Cooperation Council markets, launching its presence in Saudi Arabia in September and preparing for further expansion into Kuwait and Qatar in the fourth quarter of the year.

Amaani was founded in Dubai in 2024 by Shubham Poddar to operate and develop the AÏZA brand. The brand’s production philosophy is to create skin-care and hair-care products based on ingredients and beauty practices linked to Arab culture and regional heritage, such as dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and incense. Rather than relying on a traditional manufacturing model, the company uses a technology-driven operating model and develops its formulations in partnership with specialised laboratories in South Korea, Japan and Italy.Combining local identity with global laboratories is at the core of this commercial bet.

The Saudi market is the cornerstone and the first real test of the regional expansion plan outside the UAE, as the company intends to enter the market through the Ulta Beauty store network in Riyadh and Jeddah before moving on to Kuwait and Qatar by the end of the year. The plan for deploying the new liquidity is not limited to opening geographic distribution channels; it also includes direct investment in developing new products, attracting specialised talent, and strengthening the technical infrastructure that manages back-office operations.

I see this round placing AÏZA at the centre of a notable shift in the region’s consumer-brand landscape, which is now attracting the attention of specialised venture capital alongside funds that traditionally focused on pure-tech sectors. For entrepreneurs and operations managers in the Gulf, Egypt and the wider region, this development shifts the challenge from proving product suitability for a single market to adapting a consumer identity to fit diverse retail environments and consumer segments across Gulf markets. Moreover, the success of this path sets a new operational benchmark: it is no longer sufficient to build a local brand that relies on import and repackaging; competitors must invest in international laboratory supply chains and establish a flexible digital architecture capable of managing inventory and cross-border distribution without cost inflation.The ability to expand across multiple regions is the decisive test of the consumer-business model’s sustainability.

Monitor distribution performance in major retail stores in Riyadh and Jeddah, and track the speed of the brand’s rollout in Kuwait and Qatar; these indicators will reveal to market participants how well Gulf-specific products can evolve into sustainable companies capable of competing with global brands on both store shelves and digital platforms simultaneously.