Dominic Nowell-Barnes, the founder of Dubai streetwear label The Giving Movement, says he sold the company to its existing investors in a deal that closed a full year before he spoke about it publicly.
According to a personal Instagram post attributed to Nowell-Barnes and first surfaced by regional business outlet Smashi Business, the founder wrote that he chose to sell the brand in May 2025 "for much less than its value" after what he described as a "very personal situation". He added that his health was more important than chasing new targets, and thanked the retail and online teams he had built over the previous five years. The post has not been independently verified by LeBusiness.
Smashi Business reported the buyers were the company's existing backers rather than a third party. The Giving Movement has not issued its own public statement on the change of ownership at the time of writing.
From One Dubai Store to a Regional Footprint
The Giving Movement launched in Dubai in 2020 with a sustainability-first pitch built around recycled and organic fabrics, plus a donation of four US dollars from every sale to partner charities including Dubai Cares and Harmony House India.
By the time of the reported sale, the brand had grown to thirteen stores across the Middle East and was shipping to more than 150 countries, with retail locations across the UAE, Iraq, Lebanon and the wider GCC, according to Smashi Business. That regional footprint is part of what makes the change in ownership relevant well beyond Dubai. The Lebanese presence in particular ties the brand directly into a market that has seen very few new fashion entrants since 2019.
The Cap Table Behind the Brand
Principal investors in The Giving Movement are reported to include Lucy Bruce and Gaurav Sinha, the founders of charity platform Harmony House, which is one of the brand's donation partners.
The company also raised a 15 million US dollar Series A in 2022, led by Abu Dhabi-based Knuru Capital, with participation from Turmeric Capital. That round, at the time, was one of the larger growth cheques written into a regional direct-to-consumer fashion label, and it positioned the brand for the multi-country expansion that followed.
Rania El Khatib Reported as the New CEO
The restructuring had been partially signalled in late 2025, when Rania Masri El Khatib was reported to have been appointed chief executive to lead expansion. El Khatib previously served as Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at IMI and was a key figure behind the launch of luxury retail concept Level Shoes, giving her one of the stronger brand-building track records in the Gulf retail sector.
Her reported arrival, combined with Nowell-Barnes stepping away, would give the existing investor group a clean operational reset: a founder-led story replaced by an experienced retail operator, with the same investor base still on the cap table and the same charity-led brand DNA still in the product.
A Quiet Story With Few Official Statements
Founder departures in regional consumer brands usually come with rebrands, press releases, or a clear acquisition headline. This one has not. The deal is reported to have closed in May 2025 but was only acknowledged publicly by Nowell-Barnes in May 2026, almost exactly a year later, and only on his personal Instagram account.
For a brand that spent five years building a loud, philanthropy-forward identity, the quiet handover is the most striking part of the story. According to Nowell-Barnes himself, The Giving Movement now belongs to its investors, its operations sit with El Khatib, and the founder has stepped back to focus on his health.
