GlamBox Middle East, a beauty subscription e-commerce startup just got acquired by an unnamed Saudi-consortium of investors.
The UAE-based startup GlamBox was launched back in 2012 by the co-founders Shant Oknayan, Fares Akkad, Christos Mastoras and Marc Ghobriel. It previously raised over $4 million in venture capital funding from regional investors including MBC Ventures, STC Ventures, R&R Ventures, and KSA strategic investors.
The co-founders of GlamBox are delighted about this new milestone they have achieved. “We are proud to have successfully completed a full lifecycle of a startup in the Middle East—ideation, seed funding with our own capital, building a team, market launch in the UAE, VC funding over two rounds, building a great product, scaling the business, international expansion to KSA, and finally exit via acquisition within five years. We feel that we succeeded despite tough challenges,” they said.
Within just five years, GlamBox managed to partner up with over 200 leading international beauty brands and established operations in the UAE and KSA, all of which were backed up by a payments, logistics and fulfilment network within the region.
GlamBox came to existence when the co-founders found that the beauty industry was big and fast growing within the Middle East, yet still lacked an online presence. “We saw a gap in subscription e-commerce for women in the region, hence, GlamBox was born to service that need in the market”, the co-founders stated.
The co-founders also mentioned that the buyer investor group has some various interests in the field of media, retail and hospitality, and has plans of expanding GlamBox into Saudi Arabia, the GCC and other countries.
