Tamara, the buy now pay later platform for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the GCC, has raised $340 million in a financing round that values the fintech at $1 billion, as reported by TechCrunch.
Saudi asset manager and financial institution SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) owned company led the Series C round with other backers including Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, Impulse and others, joining existing investors such as Checkout.com.
The news comes few months after the platform received debt financing from Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners to upsize its warehouse facility to $400 million.
Tamara operates in KSA, where it is headquartered, UAE and Kuwait and has more than 10 million users, over 30,000 partner merchants and reported six times annual run rate revenue growth in less than two years. The Company was established in late 2020 and founded by three Saudi co-founders, Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Al Babtain. It was also one of the first companies to be granted a permit to provide BNPL services from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
Recently, Tamara has taken the decision to remove late payment fees, highlighting its dedication to offering financial solutions that align with Sharia principles, customer centricity and transparency. Tamara consistently strives to uphold a socially responsible business ethos, and this change is a testament to its ongoing commitment to boosting customer satisfaction, ensuring a seamless, compliant and reliable financial journey for everyone.
The Company’s offering makes it a commerce enabler to its partners through the surge in high intent shoppers resulting from co-marketing and a flexible, seamless payment journey. Tamara’s partners include regional and global brands such as SHEIN, IKEA, Jarir, Noon, eXtra and Farfetch as well as local small and medium businesses. Today, over one-third of Tamara’s users start their shopping journey from the app itself, which leads to a significantly higher return on advertising spend for Tamara’s partner merchants.
