Saudi Arabia-based buy now pay later (BNPL) startup Tamara, has secured a $6 million (SAR 22.5 million) seed round led by Impact46 with participation from Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala, and Nama, along with multiple family offices. This marks the largest seed round ever raised by a Saudi Arabian startup.

Founded by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan and Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain, Tamara is the first Saudi Arabian fintech startup to acquire a sandbox licence to operate as a BNPL platform.

The fresh funds will help Tamra accelerate its growth plans as well as expand across Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Tamara’s top partners include: Namshi, Whites, Floward, Saif Gallery, Toys R Us in addition to the e-commerce enablers: Salla and Zid. The company has offices in Germany, UAE and Vietnam.

“We enable merchants to grow their sales and entice their customers with our buy now pay later and installment services that do not include any fees the customer has to pay. We strongly believe Tamara will be a game-changer for both merchants and customers. It will positively re-shape the purchasing power in the market”, said Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, CEO and co-founder of Tamara.

Abdulaziz Alomran, CEO of Impact46, added: “The fintech market is expected to reach $33 billion in transaction value by 2023. We believe that buy now pay later is an untapped area in this huge market, and we are proud to support the Saudi pioneers leading Tamara who will surely play a major role in the transformation and future of financial services in KSA & GCC.”

BNPL has become one of the fastest growing sectors within fintech in the region, driven by the rise of e-commerce.