Islamic buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company Tabby has secured a license from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to operate in the Kingdom, in line with its MENA growth strategy.
The expansion follows Tabby’s recent financing round in May which raised its debt facility to US$350 million, more than double since its last debt raising announcement. Certified Shariah compliant in 2021, two years after it was founded in Dubai, Tabby has concluded several funding rounds: in January, it secured US$58 million in Series C funding, which raised its valuation to US$660 million, one of the highest in the region. The firm also raised US$150 million last August.
San Francisco-based Partners for Growth, which provided Tabby with its first institutional debt facility, let the latest financing round. Atalaya Capital Management, from New York, and Miami-based CoVenture participated in the round.
With the SAMA license, Tabby is now active in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt. It also brings the number of licensed BNPL companies in Saudi Arabia to five.
Since its founding in 2019, Tabby has built a user base of over 4 million active customers and grown its merchant network to over 15,000 businesses. In the UAE, it has issued over 280,000 Tabby Cards which facilitate offline sales. The Tabby app is downloaded more than 20,000 a day and drives over five million store visits a month.
The global BNPL market is projected to reach US$20.4 billion by 2028, registering a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.4% from 2021-28, according to Grand View Research. In Saudi Arabia, BNPL payments are expected to rise by 50.1% to US$284.7 million this year with a CAGR of 16.4% over the same period.