About
Shubham Poddar is the founder and chief executive of Amaani, a Dubai consumer company building beauty and wellness brands from the Middle East, starting with the skincare and haircare label AÏZA. He set up Amaani in 2023. Before that he was an investor at Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV Partners), where he led the firm's push into the Middle East with investments in fintech, food tech and proptech, and worked on its D2C beauty investments, including Mamaearth and Minimalist. He has also worked at Bain & Company and is a graduate of the Wharton School. AÏZA soft-launched in December 2024 and draws on regional ingredients such as dates, black seed, frankincense and bakhoor. Amaani raised $3 million in seed funding from Peak XV's Surge in 2025, the programme's first seed and consumer investment in the MENA region, and Forbes Middle East named Poddar to its 30 Under 30 list for 2025. In September 2026 the company raised a $5 million Series A led by BECO Capital, taking total funding to $8 million.
Timeline from fetched sources: 2023, founds Amaani in Dubai after leaving Sequoia Capital India; December 2024, soft launch of AÏZA, followed by an online launch in May 2025; 2025, $3 million seed round led by Peak XV's Surge, and a place on the Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list, which said the brand had reached $1 million in sales in the UAE and Saudi Arabia by November 2025; September 2026, $5 million Series A led by BECO Capital with Homegrown Ventures and Surge, to expand AÏZA across the GCC starting with Saudi Arabia. The company said AÏZA's net revenue grew more than ninefold year on year in the first half of 2026, and the brand is sold through its website, Ounass and Ulta Beauty stores in the UAE.
Source: forbesmiddleeast.com
