With the announcement of additional funding today, Siin, the MENA live shopping marketplace with the fastest rate of growth, has now raised $3 million in total. VentureSouq and Shift Group led the round, which also included Plus VC, Oqal, and other notable regional investors like Abdulla Al Hashmi, Mussab Al Hakami, and Suhail Al Gossaibi.
Leading regional initiatives like InspireU, the Saudi Telecom Company’s (STC) accelerator program, and Hub71, a component of Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, also support Siin. established in 2024 by seasoned marketplace operators Khaled Albalooshi (formerly Telp), Ahmed Allawi (formerly Tap Payments), and Hesham AlSaati (formerly Delivery Hero). In an area where e-commerce has expanded rapidly but real-time, interactive shopping is still in its infancy, Siin is bringing live commerce to scale.
“Commerce in MENA was never transactional; it’s social, interactive, and trust-driven,” said Ahmed Allawi, Co-founder of Siin. “From souqs to majalis, we’re now rebuilding that experience for a digital-first generation. By combining real-time engagement with a secure, community-driven marketplace, Siin is redefining how people connect, discover, and transact across the region.”
Through real-time livestreamed and gamified shopping experiences, Siin allows users to purchase and sell valuable goods. Globally, live commerce is booming, and Siin is spearheading this change locally by supporting thousands of vendors throughout the Gulf.
“In under a year, we’ve scaled across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, driving new behaviors in live shopping and social commerce,” said Hesham AlSaati, Co-founder of Siin. “We’ve facilitated the sale of hundreds of thousands of items, with tens of thousands of hours of live streaming, showing clear signs of strong engagement and marketplace liquidity. As we’ve grown, it’s become clear that we are building the trust and safety layer for social commerce in the region, positioning Siin as a leading live shopping platform for the Gulf.”
The newly raised capital will be deployed to accelerate regional expansion, increase Siin’s footprint across key markets, and further strengthen its seller ecosystem, solidifying its position at the forefront of the region’s rapidly emerging live commerce market.
“Our platform is fully built in-house, and it’s already delivering at a level comparable to global leaders while being deeply integrated for the MENA region,” said Khaled Albalooshi, Co-founder of Siin.
“Siin is tapping into a powerful intersection of culture and technology,” said Suneel Gokhale, General Partner & Co-Founder, VentureSouq. “What stood out to us is the team’s ability to localise a global trend in a way that feels native to the region. By reimagining traditional trading behaviours through live, interactive formats, Siin is unlocking a new category of commerce in the GCC with significant scale potential.”
Commenting on the fundraising announcement, Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner of Plus VC, added: “Siin is building more than a product, it is shaping a new behavioral layer for commerce in the region. By digitizing culturally ingrained trading dynamics and combining them with cutting-edge live and AI capabilities, the team is creating a highly differentiated platform with strong network effects. We are excited to support Hesham, Ahmed, Khaled and their team as they are well-positioned to lead the evolution of social commerce and establish themselves as pioneers in this space.”
Building on this momentum, Siin is doubling down on supply growth, market expansion, and category leadership across the region. With a strong foundation in place, the company is well positioned to shape the future of live commerce and become a defining platform for social shopping in the Gulf.
