Homegrown Ventures closes $22.8 million Fund I to back MENA consumer brands

• UAE-based Homegrown Ventures has closed its debut Fund I at $22.8 million, exceeding its $20 million target.
• The fund focuses on early-stage CPG and FMCG startups, targeting “better-for-you” brands across food, wellness, and lifestyle sectors.
• Founded by Nader Amiri and Ahmad Shamieh, Homegrown Ventures has already invested in five startups, including PawPots and Plaay, ahead of the fund’s final close.
• The fund will deploy capital across MENA, South Asia, and select global markets, supporting the next generation of consumer brands.

Press release:

Homegrown Ventures today announced the final close of Fund I, with a raise of over $22.8 million for its debut fund, exceeding its US$20 million target and positioning itself as the region’s first purpose-built venture capital firm focused on consumer packaged goods (CPG), fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and a new generation of locally built consumer brands.

Backed by a selective group of regional and international investors, the fund will target early-stage “better-for-you” companies across food and beverage, health and wellness, personal and home care, and lifestyle categories.

A MARKET HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

The strategy targets a clear market gap. For decades, MENA’s consumer economy was written by multinationals. Products designed elsewhere and brands born abroad, distributed through channels that had little patience for local innovation. Meanwhile, an entire generation of MENA founders, people who understood the palates, the culture, the retail chaos, and the opportunity were building brands without a supporting ecosystem.

Homegrown Ventures was created to change that; not as an accelerator with a cheque attached, but as a specialist CPG firm built by people who spent decades inside the industry: Ahmad Shamieh and Nader Amiri who scaled portfolios at Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kraft/Mondelez, Nokia, Danone, and Microsoft before becoming founders and operators themselves.

This is the fund that founders in this region never had. And today, it officially exists. 

“With over 55% of the MENA population under 35, we are witnessing a structural shift that most investors are still sleeping on. These consumers don’t just want local alternatives, they are actively choosing them, demanding transparency, better ingredients, and brands that reflect who they actually are.  

— Nader Amiri, General Partner, Homegrown Ventures

PORTFOLIO MOMENTUM 

Homegrown Ventures has deployed capital across five portfolio companies prior to final close, underscoring the growing momentum of the industry.

MENA's CPG sector has reached the same inflection point that regional tech hit 15 years ago. As global supply chains tighten, the firm sees long-term opportunity in supporting regional production and brands designed around local consumer needs.

Among its portfolio, in PawPots, to provide pets with real & fresh food, and Plaay, an indulgent, clean ingredients chocolate with zero processed sugar for the health-conscious collective, exemplifies their vision for a self-reliant and consumer-centric regional ecosystem.

“What separates Homegrown from everything else in this market is that when a founder sits across from us, they’re getting partners who have negotiated with the same retailers, built the same supply chains, and made the same mistakes. That’s an unfair advantage we pass directly to our founders.”

— Ahmad Shamieh, General Partner, Homegrown Ventures

WHAT’S NEXTHGV said Fund I will continue to seek and deploy capital into early-stage consumer brands across the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and select international markets, with a focus on food and beverage, health and wellness, personal care, home care and lifestyle products.