• Saudi Arabia-based fintech Tamara, has closed a $150 million debt financing round from Goldman Sachs, bringing the startup’s total funding in equity and debt to $366 million to date.
• Founded in 2020 by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain, Tamara is a buy now pay later (BNPL) startup that allows consumers to buy a product and pay for it in instalments.
• In August 2022, Tamara closed a $100 million Series B equity round from Sanabil Investments, Coatue, Shurooq Partners, Endeavor Catalyst and existing investor Checkout.com.
• This funding will help Tamara finance the demand for its flagship BNPL product and continue its growth across new verticals.

Press release:

Tamara, the leading shopping and payments platform in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region has closed a receivables warehouse facility of up to $150 million from Goldman Sachs. The latest round brings Tamara’s total funding in equity and debt up to $366 million since its launch in September 2020. This facility will help Tamara finance the accelerating demand for its flagship BNPL product and continue its growth across new verticals. 

Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Co-founder, and CEO of Tamara commented, “This deal is the first of its kind in the region and a testament to the company's performance and the team’s ability to win the trust of top-tier global financial institutions like Goldman Sachs during a difficult global macroeconomic climate. We believe that Goldman Sachs, with their track record in working with similar companies of our stage globally, is the ideal financing partner for Tamara. It is crucial for us to work with global and regional financial partners with strong balance sheets that have the capacity to provide incremental funding to support our vision.”

Tamara’s mission is to empower people in their daily lives and revolutionize how they shop, pay and bank. The company is at the very beginning of executing its strategy across these three areas, which are a natural evolution from its initial BNPL offering. Tamara has witnessed record-breaking adoption, having onboarded 6 million customers since its launch two and a half years ago across Saudi Arabia, its home market, followed by neighbouring GCC countries UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. 

Abdulmajeed added: “Providing excellent products and services to our customers across shopping, payments and banking is at the core of Tamara. The team has shown the ability to scale a complex B2B and B2C business model, and BNPL is just an initial offering. We see a much deeper demand that we can fulfil with the same technology and customer-first approach.” 

Tamara acts as a commerce enabler for over 15,000 partner merchants who are offering products and services online and in-store. These partners include regional and global brands such as SHEIN, IKEA, Jarir, Noon and H&M as well as local small and medium businesses. Not only do Tamara’s partners see bigger basket sizes, increased conversion and lower returns, but they also benefit from access to high intent shoppers through co-marketing. Today, over one-third of Tamara’s customers begin their shopping journey from Tamara’s app resulting in a significantly higher return on advertising spend for Tamara’s partner merchants.

The GCC, especially Saudi Arabia, continues to exhibit strong growth despite the global macroeconomic slowdown. The fintech sector is undergoing a rapid transformation and has received significant global investment in recent years. The region is still developing with cash on delivery prevalent in e-commerce, and low credit card penetration compared to global markets. The population is heavily skewed towards the youth - which constitutes around 70% of the population and is very tech-savvy. Tamara’s digital-first approach focused on Millennials and Gen Z positions the company at the forefront of this transformation.