Saudi fintech Tamara eyes expansion into new products following $110m funding

Saudi-based fintech firm Tamara, which recently raised $110m as part of series A round, is now looking at further expanding its product portfolio, according to Abdulmohsen Al Babtain, the company’s co-founder and director of Product.

The ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) firm, which launched in 2020, has already seen strong traction in its home market and is looking to expand across the GCC by the end of this year.

Following the latest funding round – led by payment processor Checkout.com – the fintech is also eyeing new products within the same space, added Al Babtain.

“When it comes to verticals, we’re in very close relationship with our customers,” stated Al Babtain.

“And based on their feedback, we roll out new products – there are new products in the pipeline currently, and we will roll it out this year.

“I can’t comment too much [on the new products], but I can say that it’s definitely within the same space. Something we want to do is to roll out new products that would help us tap into new industries and support our partners,” he adds.

Tamara, which claims to be Saudi Arabia’s fastest-growing BNPL provider, allows consumers new ways to pay online – either splitting balances over three payments or paying 30 days later.

It has grown its base across Saudi Arabia and the UAE to over 1,000 merchants, including the likes of Namshi, Floward, SACO, Nice One, Whites, and Nejree.

“We started with a very capable team – when it comes to tech, when it comes to product and when it comes to scaling the business. And from there, we just focused on executing and on providing quality deliverables.

“We focused on a very specific problem, which is cash on delivery (COD), which is a pain point for all the stakeholders involved. In Saudi, COD still accounts for 60 per cent to 70 per cent. When it comes to customers, COD is a pain point because they have to have the cash to repay the merchants, or they don’t like the reconciliation process when it comes to cash. If we really dig deeper into the issue, customers just want to see the product before they pay, and they want more innovative solutions when it comes to repaying their orders and managing their payments,” he explained.

“And also, it’s in line with the regulators vision to have a cashless economy.”

Tamara, which was the first BNPL firm to be enrolled in the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA)’s Sandbox programme, is also investing in its tech to ensure that it offers an easy experience for its users.

“It’s very important to us to have reliable tech, and when it comes to the cloud services that we rely on, reliability is very important. And as you could imagine in a fintech industry, this multiplies by 100, because one of the main values that we provide is reliability, trust, and we can only do that with a reliable partner such as Oracle. They provided us with a very simple way to scale the business, nothing complicated,” he stated.

Looking to the future, with the BNPL market expected to grow 400 per cent, reaching an estimated $680bn in transaction volume globally by 2025, Tamara is looking to leverage its strong growth to tap into the potential in the region.