UAE-Based Homegrown Ventures Raises US$22.8 Million Debut Fund To Invest In MENA Consumer Startups

UAE-based consumer venture capital firm Homegrown Ventures has closed its debut fund at US$22.8 million with the aim to invest in early-stage consumer brands across the MENA and other markets. 

Backed by regional and international investors, Homegrown Ventures’ Fund I, which exceeded its $20 million target, will target early-stage consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) startups, focusing on “better-for-you” brands across food and beverage, health and wellness, personal and home care, and lifestyle categories in the MENA, South Asia, and select international markets. 

Homegrown Ventures was founded in the UAE in 2023 by Ahmad Shamieh and Nader Amiri. Together, the duo bring decades of experience working across companies like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mondelez International, Nokia, Danone, and Microsoft; Amiri was also the co-founder and former CEO of UAE-based grocery delivery platform elGrocer, which went on to be acquired by the UAE's e& Group. 

Even before the fund’s final close, Homegrown Ventures had already begun deploying capital, backing five companies, including Lebanon-based PawPots, which produces fresh pet food, and UAE-based Plaay, a chocolate brand focused on clean ingredients and no processed sugar, reflecting its focus on brands built for local markets with strong fundamentals. This approach stems from a gap the founders observed firsthand while engaging with the region’s consumer startup ecosystem.

"When I was winding down elGrocer and thinking about what came next, I was spending a lot of time with early-stage consumer founders," Amiri told Inc. Arabia. "What struck me wasn't a lack of ambition or creativity. It was that founders genuinely didn't know who to raise from, and even when they found their way to a fund, there was either no real allocation for their category, no understanding of the specific dynamics of CPG and F&B in the MENA, or no meaningful support. Capital, in the way CPG founders actually needed it, was largely absent. Ahmad had been seeing the same thing from a different vantage point; so, we built together the fund we wish had existed when we were on the other side of the table.” 

Amiri and Shamieh have thus built Homegrown Ventures around addressing this gap in the consumer sector, which has historically been dominated by multinational companies in the region, leaving locally built brands with limited access to specialized capital and operational support. “What we're really trying to demonstrate is that category-focused, operator-led investing in MENA consumer brands can generate strong returns for regional capital,” Amiri explained. “If we do that consistently, it attracts more institutional attention, more follow-on funding, and a healthier pipeline of founders who see this region as a place worth building in, not just selling into, and, in fact, even going globally from as a base.”

The timing of Homegrown Ventures’ first close, amid heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty across the MENA region, also underscores the durability of the conviction that its co-founders says has been years in the making. “This fund has been in the making; the thesis didn’t emerge from the recent volatility,” Amiri revealed. “If anything, the macro backdrop, with the COVID-19 crisis first, and then the geopolitical and societal shifts that followed, accelerated what we already believed was inevitable: that the MENA needed a generation of homegrown consumer brands, and that those brands needed investors who actually understood them. That said, of course, closing a first fund in this environment required conviction from both sides. Limited partner (LP) conversations that were moving steadily would slow when uncertainty spiked. Timelines stretched. What held was the thesis itself. The case for backing regionally grounded brands with short supply chains and deep consumer insight only got stronger as the external noise got louder. This is why this sector/industry generally thrives in all conditions, and communities/consumers gravitate to trusted and local brands in times of uncertainty.” 

Amiri added that his firm’s investment criteria remains consistent despite shifting market conditions. “Honestly, the current environment doesn't change what we look for; it reinforces it,” he said. “We've always believed in category focus and geographic diversification within the MENA as the foundation of a resilient portfolio. F&B, health and wellness, beauty and personal care, and home care, each come with their own dynamics around regulation, supply chain, and consumer behavior. And markets like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and beyond, each of them requires genuine local understanding to unlock. Volatility just makes those convictions more visible. Founders who were riding tailwinds now have to prove they can operate without them. And what we're finding is that standout founders, the ones with a clear product conviction, a tight grip on their unit economics, and the instinct to move fast when conditions shift, are pulling away from the pack precisely because of the pressure, not despite it. PawPots and Plaay are good examples of the profile we target, with their results last weeks/month being the best ever despite the market conditions. The common thread across everything we look at is a founder who has built something real before raising: genuine traction, a structurally sound profit and loss (P&L) statement, and a brand that belongs in this market, rather than one adapted from somewhere else.”

From Amiri’s point of view, standout founders are thus not just weathering the current environment, but are improving because of it—an idea he linked to author Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s concept of antifragility, and one that also shapes how Homegrown Ventures evaluates who to back. “The best founders don't just survive adversity, but in fact they get sharper because of it,” Amiri declared. “In practice, that means: act fast, don't sit on decisions waiting for clarity that isn't coming. Ask for help, from your investors, your network, your peers—the best founders we've backed are the ones who treat their cap table as a resource, not a scoreboard. And find creative solutions, whether that’s a co-manufacturing arrangement you hadn't considered, a route to market that wasn’t your original plan, or a retail partner who becomes a strategic ally. Keep moving and pushing. The founders who come through periods like this with stronger businesses are almost always the ones who narrowed their focus and protected what made them distinctive, rather than broadening to hedge. For anyone specifically looking to get our attention, be honest about where you are. We're early-stage investors; we don't expect perfection. What we want to see is a founder who knows exactly what is working, what isn't, and has a specific theory of what capital unlocks next. That clarity, especially in an uncertain environment, tells us more about a founder than any deck ever will.” 

Pictured in the lead image are Homegrown Ventures co-founders Ahmad Shamieh and Nader Amiri. Image courtesy Homegrown Ventures.