Dubai-based beauty company Amaani has closed a $3 million seed funding round to expand its first brand, Aïza, across the Middle East and lay the groundwork for growth outside of the region.
“The Middle East has always been an amazing consumer of global brands, but I feel there’s a lot of potential to build brands from here and take them around the world,” says founder and CEO Shubham Poddar. “The vision of the company is to build the next generation of consumer brands in the beauty and wellness space from the Middle East to the world.”
Amaani’s seed funding round was led by Peak XV’s Surge, formerly Sequoia Capital India and SEA, and marks the company’s first consumer and seed investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Poddar hopes to get beauty specialist investors such as True Beauty Ventures on the cap table in the future.
“The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] beauty and personal care market is already a $12 billion industry, growing at over 12% annually, with some of the highest per capita spends globally,” says GV Ravishankar, managing director at Peak XV, in a statement. “We believe the region is now primed to produce the next wave of culturally resonant, globally admired consumer brands. Amaani is well positioned to lead this movement.”
Poddar previously worked as an investor at Sequoia Capital India for more than two years, where he guided the firm’s business in the Middle East, spearheading the backing of financial, food and property technology companies, though he says he “always felt the pulse of the Middle East was in consumer brands, retail consumerism.” To stay on the pulse, he started Amaani in 2023 and launched Aïza in May this year.
Only three months after launch, Aïza has already crossed $2 million in annualized revenue. Amaani is positioning it to become the Arab world’s answer to brands like Sol de Janeiro. Though firmly focused on the Middle East today, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia leading the charge, accounting for over 80% of its sales, the brand ships worldwide and has seen organic orders from London, Los Angeles, Paris and Singapore.
Two customer groups stand out abroad: members of the Arab diaspora eager for a product that connects them to home, and non-Arab consumers discovering the brand through word of mouth and influencers. The latter is an encouraging sign of broader potential, says Poddar, but international expansion plans are currently measured.
In 2026, Amaani expects to broaden its Middle Eastern footprint, moving into specialty retail as it simultaneously revs up brand awareness online. Toward 2027, Aïza anticipates setting its sights on the United States and the United Kingdom, with Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Space NK high on its wishlist for retail partners.
“The Middle East has always been an amazing consumer of global brands, but I feel there’s a lot of potential to build brands from here and take it around the world.”
Aïza’s three bestsellers speak directly to local beauty rituals. Date Setter, a brow and lash serum made with castor oil, dates and biotin, has become the top product in a region where thick, defined brows are celebrated. Sukkhar Rush, a dates and honey lip treatment, has the flavor of a regional dessert. Scent Storm, a rose-infused protective hair mist, modernizes the longstanding tradition of perfuming hair with bakhoor smoke, while addressing the practical need for heat and humidity protection.
With prices ranging from $34 to $69, Aïza sits within masstige beauty, and Poddar pegs the masstige segment as one of the fastest-growing in the Middle East. He says, “Masstige is also something we’ve seen the cultural beauty brands around the world do well.”
The long-term play is to turn Amaani into a portfolio company housing multiple beauty and wellness concepts born in the Middle East and scaling globally. “Over the last two years, we’ve developed a lot of know-how on how to create a brand, how to understand the consumer and how to build a product with them,” says Poddar. “And that’s why the vision is over a longer period of time to build several brands, but, for now, AÏZA is very much the focus.”
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