Siin, a Riyadh-based live commerce platform operating across the Gulf, has closed a funding round that brings its total capital raised to $3 million. The round was led by VentureSouq and Shift Group, with participation from Plus VC, Oqal, and a group of regional angel investors.
The raise arrives as live shopping gains ground in a GCC market where e-commerce infrastructure is mature but interactive retail is still finding its footing.
What Siin Does
Founded in 2024 by Hesham AlSaati (formerly of Delivery Hero), Ahmed Allawi (formerly of Tap Payments), and Khaled Albalooshi (formerly of Telp), Siin is a live shopping and social commerce marketplace targeting the MENA region, with a primary focus on the Gulf. The platform enables users to buy and sell high-value goods through real-time, livestreamed and gamified shopping experiences, built around two core mechanics: live stream shopping, where sellers broadcast and interact with buyers in real time, and live auctions, where buyers bid against each other during active streams.
The company also emphasises that its technology stack is built entirely in-house, allowing it to tailor the experience to regional user behaviour rather than adapting global models.
Early Traction and Investor Backing
In under a year, the platform has scaled across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, facilitating the sale of hundreds of thousands of items across tens of thousands of hours of live streaming.
Alongside the round’s lead investors, Siin counts notable regional backers including Suhail Al Gossaibi, Mussab Al Hakami, and Abdulla Al Hashmi, General Manager of Salla E-Commerce Platform. The company is also supported by Hub71 in Abu Dhabi and InspireU, the accelerator program run by Saudi Telecom Company.
How the Capital Will Be Deployed
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate regional expansion, increase its footprint across key markets, and consolidate its seller ecosystem. For investors, the bet is as much on the category as on the company. VentureSouq General Partner Suneel Gokhale noted the team’s ability to localise a global format in a way that feels native to the region, pointing to what he described as a new commerce category in the GCC with significant scale potential.
The Broader Context
Live commerce has proven itself as a dominant retail format in Asia, where platforms like Taobao Live drove billions in annual transactions. In the Gulf, platforms like Siin are beginning to test how that model translates locally, with a growing base of sellers using live formats to reach buyers. Whether the interactivity-driven model sustains engagement at scale will be the defining question as the platform enters its next phase.
