Buy now, pay later in the Gulf was once a startup curiosity; in 2026, Tamara‘s $2.4 billion Shariah-compliant financing package and Tabby‘s $4.5 billion valuation mark the sector’s arrival as institutional-grade consumer finance infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia’s two largest buy now, pay later operators have secured a combined capital commitment that reflects both the maturity of the GCC consumer credit market and the global appeal of Islamic-finance structuring. Tamara — which holds a full consumer finance and BNPL licence from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) — secured a financing package worth up to $2.4 billion from Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo funds, according to Fintech Weekly, one of the largest of its kind for any Gulf-headquartered fintech. Tabby, its principal competitor, reached a $4.5 billion valuation, up from $3.3 billion in February 2025, making it the most highly valued consumer fintech startup ever to emerge from the Arab world.
Tamara’s Shariah Financing Sets a Template:
Tamara’s $2.4 billion facility — structured as Shariah-compliant financing — is significant beyond its size. The arrangement includes an initial $1.4 billion with an additional $1 billion available over a three-year period, contingent on Tamara meeting performance and compliance milestones. Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo’s willingness to structure an Islamic-finance instrument at this scale signals that global capital markets now regard Shariah-compliant consumer credit as a bankable, replicable asset class — not a bespoke arrangement for an unusual market. Tamara’s SAMA licence, obtained in 2025, allows it to offer higher ticket sizes and a broader product set than unlicensed competitors, and the bank-grade financing package enables the company to scale its merchant and consumer base without diluting founder and early-investor equity.
Tabby’s Expansion Beyond BNPL:
Tabby, which operates across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait with more than 15 million registered users and 40,000 merchant partners, has been explicit about its ambitions beyond instalment payments. Following its $160 million Series E round in February 2025 at a $3.3 billion valuation — led by Hassana Investment Company, PIF’s pension arm — Tabby has been building out a broader financial services suite including a debit card, savings products, and credit-score tools for users. Its latest valuation of $4.5 billion, reported by Finextra, reflects investor confidence in this multi-product trajectory and the company’s position as the default checkout financing option at a growing roster of GCC and international retailers. An IPO — initially flagged for 2025 — was deferred to allow further product development, with Tabby’s management targeting a Tadawul or ADX listing when conditions support a valuation above $5 billion.
A Market Heading Toward $8.8bn by 2031
The GCC BNPL market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 28.8% between 2022 and 2025, according to a Yahoo Finance market report, reaching an estimated $2.7 billion in transaction volume in 2025. The market is forecast to grow at a 21.3% CAGR from 2026 to 2031, reaching approximately $8.8 billion. Structural drivers include a young, digitally native population (more than 60% of GCC residents under 35), high smartphone penetration, and a cultural preference for instalment-based purchasing — a practice with deep roots in the region’s traditional credit market, the taqsit system. Both Tamara and Tabby benefit from operating in markets where credit card penetration among the under-30 segment is lower than in comparable middle-income markets, giving BNPL a genuine product-market fit rather than a convenience-layer role.
Tamara and Tabby have crossed the threshold from venture-backed startups to businesses that global institutional lenders are prepared to fund at the multi-billion-dollar level. This matters for GCC fintech investors in two ways. First, it confirms that consumer credit underwriting in the Gulf can be risk-managed at institutional scale, removing one of the principal objections to the sector from conservative LP committees. Second, it raises the competitive barrier for any new entrant to the BNPL space: the capital required to match Tamara’s merchant network and Tabby’s user base is now beyond the reach of most new launches. Investors should watch for the next wave of consolidation, in which mid-tier BNPL operators in Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan are likely acquisition targets for both companies as they pursue regional expansion.
