The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2020-2025
Tamara bet Saudis would adopt BNPL; first SAMA-licensed player became a unicorn
Riyadh's BNPL platform rode SAMA sandbox licensing and Saudi capital from $6M seed to a $1B+ valuation and a $2.4B debt facility
Tamara
What the business is
Buy-now-pay-later payments platform for online and in-store shopping across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Gulf
Starting capital：$6M seed (Jan 2021), $110M Series A (Apr 2021), $340M Series C (Dec 2023)
How it started
In 2020 Abdulmajeed Alsukhan and co-founders Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain spotted a Saudi e-commerce market where cash on delivery dominated and card penetration was low. They launched Tamara in September 2020 as a buy-now-pay-later checkout option, betting a transparent, Shariah-compliant alternative could win both shoppers and merchants.
What happened
Tamara closed a $6M seed in January 2021 — five months after launch — then the $110M Series A led by Checkout.com in April 2021, the largest MENA fintech round at the time, funding expansion across the GCC. In December 2023 a $340M Series C co-led by SNB Capital and PIF-owned Sanabil Investments valued it above $1B, making it Saudi Arabia's first homegrown fintech unicorn with 10M users and 30,000 merchants.
How it ended up
Still scaling: in September 2025 Tamara secured an up-to-$2.4B asset-backed facility from Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo funds — the largest such deal in the Middle East — to push past 20M customers and expand credit and payment products regionally.
Background
Saudi Arabia's e-commerce was growing fast in 2020, but cash on delivery still dominated because many shoppers had no credit card. Abdulmajeed Alsukhan and co-founders Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain launched Tamara in September 2020 to offer buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) at checkout — an alternative to cards and cash, structured to be Shariah-compliant.
The founders bet that regulatory legitimacy would be the moat. Tamara became the first BNPL firm admitted to the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)'s sandbox, signed flagship merchants such as Namshi, Floward and SACO, and closed a $6M seed in January 2021. In April 2021 Checkout.com led a $110M Series A — the largest MENA fintech round at the time — to expand across the GCC.
By December 2023 Tamara had 10 million users and 30,000 partner merchants, and a $340M Series C co-led by SNB Capital and PIF-owned Sanabil Investments put its valuation above $1 billion: the Kingdom's first homegrown fintech unicorn. In September 2025 it added an up-to-$2.4B asset-backed facility from Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo funds to lend beyond its 20 million customers — a bet that Saudi capital and BNPL demand still have room to grow.
What has to be true
- Saudi shoppers' low card penetration made BNPL a genuinely new payment option, not a clone of a saturated Western market
- SAMA's sandbox admission gave the startup regulatory trust and a head start before formal BNPL licensing existed
- Local sovereign capital (Sanabil, SNB Capital) aligned with Vision 2030's fintech push, so the company could raise at scale at home
- Merchant-side economics worked: BNPL lifted conversion and average order value for e-commerce partners, driving retention
- A Shariah-compliant, late-fee-free model fit the market's values and differentiated it from global BNPL players
What can be applied
When incumbents' payment rails are weak, the first regulator-sanctioned local entrant can own a new category: SAMA's sandbox license gave Tamara trust and speed later Gulf rivals had to fight for.
Aftermath
As of September 2025 Tamara operates across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait with more than 20 million customers and 30,000 merchants, and is expanding into new credit and payment products. Its $2.4B asset-backed facility (Goldman Sachs, Citi, Apollo) refinances and upsizes an earlier $500M Goldman Sachs facility, and reports in 2025 showed the company turning profitable as revenue grew and credit costs fell.
Sources
- Tamara announces the largest Series A round in MENA, $110 million led by Checkout.com
- "We Got Funded!" Saudi Arabia-Based Tamara Becomes The Kingdom's First Homegrown Fintech Unicorn
- Saudi fintech Tamara secures $2.4bn asset-backed facility to fuel expansion
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