Saudi buy-now-pay later (BNPL) platform Tamara has successfully secured $340m in a Series C funding round, taking its total valuation to $1bn.
BNPL platforms allow customers to pay for their purchases at a later date, generally as part of an instalment plan.
The funding round was spearheaded by Saudi Arabian asset manager SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
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Notable participation also came from Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, Impulse, and existing investors such as Checkout.com.
This recent funding round comes on the heels of a $400m debt financing round, where Tamara secured backing from Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners, allowing the platform to expand its warehouse facility.
Tamara has now raised a total of $500m in equity funding and over $400m in debt financing.
With a user base exceeding 10 million across primary markets such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Tamara has positioned itself as a key player in the BNPL space.
The platform facilitates instalment payments for users across 30,000 partner merchants, including brands like Shein, Ikea and Farfetch.
Tamara’s success mirrors the broader surge in BNPL usage, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where the market constitutes more than 80% of its customer base.
According to a fintech report by the Saudi Central Bank, registered customers with BNPL services skyrocketed from 76,000 in 2020 to 10 million in 2022, reflecting nearly 30% of Saudi Arabia’s population.
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By GlobalDataThis growth is propelled by the increasing popularity of e-commerce and a projected 20% compound annual growth rate for digital payments until 2025, reaching 13 billion transactions with a total value of $170bn.
Despite global challenges in venture capital activity, Tamara’s impressive figures and the positive projections for the region continue to attract interest from both local and foreign investors.
Earlier this year, Tamara announced the removal of late payment fees to be Sharia-compliant and customer-centric, offering risk management tools to help customers pay on time and aligning options with their financial capabilities.
