Unpacking the Journey of Bilal Mekkaoui: From Investment Banking to Celebrity-Driven Consumer Ventures Mekkaoui recently announced the successful closing of an $8 million round for Homecourt, the home-care beauty brand he co-founded with Courteney Cox.
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In a world where entrepreneurship is often defined by reinvention, few embody the art of evolving with the market quite like Bilal Mekkaoui, founder of OuiCollab and one of the sharpest operators bridging tech, consumer goods, and celebrity-led brands.
We meet in Dubai just as Mekkaoui announces the successful closing of an $8 million round for Homecourt, the home-care beauty brand he co-founded with Courteney Cox. His tone is calm, but his story is anything but—spanning global banks, billion-dollar IPOs, celebrity boardrooms in Malibu, and a growing venture studio now eyeing expansion from the US to India and the Middle East.
From Investment Banking to the Frontlines of Global Tech
Lebanese by heritage and raised in London, Mekkaoui's early career was forged in the high-pressure corridors of global finance. In the late '90s and early 2000s, he cut his teeth at Deutsche Bank working on TMT M&A, later joining UBS to co-run its ECM CEMA desk in London.
"That period shaped everything," he recalls. "You're constantly evaluating: how do you position companies to go public? How do you turn heritage businesses into market-ready players? It was a front-row seat to the evolution of tech."
That vantage point led him to Rocket Internet, where he became deeply embedded in the rise of global e-commerce. He worked on Lazada (later sold to Alibaba), Namshi, and eventually rose to become head of strategy and fundraising for half the Rocket portfolio. Between 2012 and 2014, his team raised $3 billion in private capital, culminating in Rocket's €6.7 billion IPO in 2014.
After a stint preparing Delivery Hero for its IPO—completed in 2017—Mekkaoui was ready to build something of his own.
From JOBI Capital to Identifying a New Goldmine: Celebrity-Led Brands
In 2016, he launched Jobi Capital with Joe Daher of the Azadea Group, raising two double digit million dollar funds focused on consumer retail tech.
But it was a wave of inbound opportunities from New York that shifted his trajectory: celebrity-led businesses. Jessica Alba's Honest Company. Kylie Cosmetics. Brands that scaled fast, generated strong margins, and built loyal consumer bases not through tech wizardry—but through cultural gravity.
"I realized there was a massive opportunity if you got in early," he says. "The model was clear: right category, right team, right timing… it reminded me of Rocket."
That spark became the foundation for what would eventually grow into OuiCollab.
Image courtesy Bilal Mekkaoui
The Courteney Cox Chapter: Building Homecourt
The first real opening came from an unexpected place: Courteney Cox.
"Courteney was the one celebrity I had direct access to," Mekkaoui says. A few social meetings and calls later, he pitched her a venture. But before the idea came the data:
- 80% of her following was aged 18–35
- Over 72% were female
- 55% followed architecture, interior design, and home aesthetics
- She studied architecture, lives in a $120M Malibu home, and appeared regularly in Architectural Digest
- Her personal traits—smart, cleanliness, order, perfection—made home-care deeply authentic
The brand that emerged was Homecourt, a scented home-care and design-forward essentials company—hand soaps, dish soaps, room sprays, surface cleaners, home fragrances, body care, laundry care—positioned as elevated everyday luxury.
They raised a $3 million seed round, recruited L'Oréal veteran Sarah Jahnke as CEO and co-founder, and launched on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in January 2022.
Homecourt sold out within three hours.
It sold out again two months later. The company has doubled revenue year-on-year and is profitable today.
"We built it like a tech company," Mekkaoui explains. "Raise once to build the foundation—not burn cash on marketing."
Venturing Into Pets With Kaley Cuoco
Next came the booming pet care category.
After months of conversations with the management teams of very renowned and known celebrities — where demands for massive upfront fees killed the economics—Mekkaoui found the perfect match in Kaley Cuoco, star of The Big Bang Theory.
"One call and I knew she was the one," he says. Cuoco lives on her own animal farm in Malibu, has adopted over 100 animals, and carried a genuine passion for improving pet wellbeing.
Authenticity won again.
They raised another $3 million, hired former Warby Parker executive Katie Hunt as CEO and co-founder, and built a pet-wellness brand Oh Norman! named after Kaley's first rescue Norman, now available on Chewy, PetMeds, Amazon, and inside 200,000+ subscription boxes across the US.
"With a celebrity who truly believes in the mission, doors open faster," Mekkaoui says. "What would've taken another startup five years, we did in two."
The Birth of OuiCollab
After parting ways with his original partners, Mekkaoui rebranded the venture studio as OuiCollab—a global incubator building celebrity-led consumer brands with repeatable methodology, data-driven brand strategy, and high-caliber operators at the helm.
His next frontier: scaling globally.
"We just signed our first partner in India," he reveals. "We know the product, we're hiring the CEO, and we're now looking at the Middle East as a parallel market."
For a region steeped in talent, influencers, and consumer appetite, OuiCollab's model fits like a glove.
The Future of Celebrity x Consumer: Built in Dubai, Designed for the World
What sets Mekkaoui apart is discipline: the rigor of banking, the scale of Rocket Internet, and the cultural intuition needed to build with celebrities—not just around them.
He doesn't chase hype. He chases economics, authenticity, and global relevance.
As OuiCollab expands into new geographies, one truth becomes clear: celebrity-led brands are no longer extensions of fame—they're disciplined businesses that can outperform traditional startups when the right operator is at the center.
And if Mekkaoui's track record is any indication, the next wave of globally resonant consumer brands may well be built not in LA or New York—but in Dubai and beyond, where data, design, and star power converge.
Because for Bilal Mekkaoui, the journey isn't just about building brands with celebrities—it's about building brands that matter and last.
