Saudi BNPL portal Tamara secures another $100m for expansion plans
Tamara was the first BNPL platform to enrol in SAMA’s Sandbox program
Dubai: The Saudi payments fintech Tamara has raised $100 million in a Series B round that was led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company under the Kingdom’s wealth fund PIF. There was also participation from Coatue, Shorooq Partners, Endeavor Catalyst and a follow-on investment by global fintech Checkout.com.
Tamara, which has more than 3 million customers and over 4,000 merchants as partners, will use the funding to expand product offering across payments and shopping in addition to get into new markets. Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Tamara’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Our mission is to deliver an exceptional experience to our customers by offering transparent, seamless and inclusive payment solutions. We act as a marketing and discovery channel for our partner merchants to drive new customers and incremental sales online and in-store.
Launched in September 2020 by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain, Tamara was the first BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) to enroll in the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)’s Sandbox program.
Five months after launching, Tamara closed a $6 million seed round in January 2021, followed by a $110 million Series A led by Checkout.com in April 2021. This was the ‘largest-ever recorded in the MENA region’, making the total funding so far $216 million in equity and debt.