Australian bakery brand Brooki Bakehouse has secured a $25 million investment from UAE lifestyle developer Arada, marking the next phase of its rapid expansion.
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The deal will fund Brooki’s international rollout, beginning with flagship bakeries in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in December, followed by further global markets in 2026. Brooki’s first Sydney store is also due to open this week.
“The race is on to open our new store in Sydney later this week,” Bellamy said in a video posted to social media on Sunday.
“In the first week of December, we will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, opening our new pop-up locations and then getting ready to open permanent stores.”
Founded in Brisbane in 2022, Brooki Bakehouse built a cult following for its oversized New York-style cookies and ‘day in the life of a bakery owner’ videos.
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This resulted in long queues outside its Fortitude Valley flagship store and amassing more than two million followers on TikTok and one million on Instagram.
Since then, the business has opened new permanent locations in Chermside, Mount Gravatt, Pacific Fair and Brisbane Airport.
Before founding Brooki, Bellamy worked as a travel blogger and content creator, skills she later channelled into the bakery’s viral growth.
In a recent TikTok, she said Brooki Bakehouse had been open for about a year before it went viral.
Bellamy said the investment with Arada is designed to take the “Australian story to a global stage”.
“We built Brooki from scratch — no shortcuts, no compromises — and now, with Arada, we have the platform and resources to share our creativity, quality and community with the world,” she said in a statement.
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Arada, a lifestyle developer co-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al Waleed bin Talal and Sharjah royal Ahmed Al Qasimi, said the partnership would help scale the brand into markets including the UAE and UK while strengthening its Australian base.
“This transaction with Brooki Bakehouse reflects Arada’s commitment to creating meaningful lifestyle experiences that connect people through culture, food and design,” said group CEO Ahmed Alkhoshaibi.
The company was restructured in October as a subsidiary of the new UAE entity Brooki Global LLC, with Alkhoshaibi joining its board.
Brooki’s global ambitions echo a growing trend of Australian dessert brands expanding abroad. Gelato Messina now operates stores in Hong Kong and Singapore, while Melbourne-born frozen yoghurt chain Yo-Chi launched its first international outlet in Singapore in August 2025.
Brooki’s announcement comes months after Bellamy faced plagiarism allegations from fellow cookbook author Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats and US baker Sally McKenney, creator of Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Both claimed recipes from Bake With Brooki mirrored their own work, prompting widespread debate online about recipe copyright. Bellamy and her publisher, Penguin Random House, have denied the claims.
