The problem
Gulf retail ran on cash and debit while big-ticket purchases kept getting abandoned at checkout: shoppers with thin credit files had no flexible way to spread payments, interest-based credit clashed with Shariah preferences, and merchants had no lender willing to underwrite thin-file consumers at the point of sale.
How it works
The customer chooses Tamara at an online or in-store checkout and splits the purchase into instalments with no late fees; Tamara pays the merchant upfront and collects from the customer over time. On top of that checkout wedge it is stacking broader products across shopping, payments, and banking in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait.
Pain points
Cash-dominated habits, limited credit histories to underwrite against, Shariah sensitivity around interest and late fees — which Tamara answered by removing late payment fees — and merchants unwilling to carry credit risk themselves.
Business model
BNPL economics earned across a 30,000-strong merchant partner network, increasingly blended with payment and credit products. The lending side is funded wholesale: a $500 million facility first, then an up-to-$2.4 billion Shariah-compliant asset-backed package.
Challenges
The same checkout button is contested by Tabby and bank-led wallets, squeezing margins; moving beyond short instalments into larger credit products needs banking-grade underwriting; and each growth step must be funded with ever-bigger debt lines on top of $500 million in equity raised.
Funding
- Raised: $340M Series C equity (Dec 2023), co-led by SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments (PIF), with Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, Impulse, Coatue, Endeavor Catalyst, and Checkout.com participating.
- Previously: $400M+ in debt financing including a Goldman Sachs-arranged package (Rasmal, Dec 2023); total equity passed $500M.
- Valuation: $1B+ (Dec 2023) — Saudi Arabia’s first homegrown fintech unicorn.
Latest — September 2025
On 15 September 2025 Tamara secured an up-to-$2.4 billion Shariah-compliant asset-backed facility from Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Apollo funds — refinancing and expanding its prior $500 million arrangement with $1.4 billion available immediately and a further $1 billion over three years — to grow lending power beyond its then-20 million customers (Reuters).