•  Major Funding Success: Tamara, the Saudi Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, secured an impressive $340 million in a recent financing round, led by prominent investors such as Saudi asset manager SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, a wholly-owned entity of Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF). 

•  Strategic Growth and Funding History: Tamara’s latest funding achievement comes on the heels of a strategic move ten months ago when it secured debt financing from Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners, amounting to $400 million. 

•  Expansive User Base and Market Presence: Tamara boasts an extensive user base exceeding 10 million across key markets, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait. 

Saudi Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, Tamara, catering to consumers in Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC region, announced it secured $340 million in a recent financing round, according to media reports.

The Series C round was led by Saudi asset manager SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, a wholly-owned entity of Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF). 

Notable participants include Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, Impulse, and existing investor Checkout.com. This funding round, comprising both primary capital and a transaction involving some secondary shares, stands out as one of the region’s largest fintech investments.

This development follows Tamara’s strategic move ten months ago when it secured debt financing from Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners to expand its warehouse facility to $400 million. 

Since its inception in late 2020 by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah, and Abdulmohsen Al Babtain, Tamara has raised a total of $500 million in equity funding, including secondaries, and over $400 million in debt financing.

Tamara boasts a user base exceeding 10 million across its primary markets – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait. Users engage with the platform to shop, pay in installments, and access banking services from a network of 30,000 partner merchants, including renowned regional and global brands such as SHEIN, IKEA, Jarir, Noon, eXtra, and Farfetch.

The surge in BNPL services is in line with the fintech trend reported by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in the previous year. 

Registered customers with BNPL services skyrocketed from 76,000 in 2020 to an impressive 3 million in 2021 and further escalated to 10 million in 2022, according to SAMA.

This surge, representing nearly 30% of Saudi Arabia’s population, is propelled by the flourishing e-commerce landscape and an anticipated 20% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for digital payments until 2025. Projections indicate a staggering 13 billion transactions with a total value of $170 billion by 2025, the report added.