Tamara, a Saudi firm in the financial technology sector, defied a global decline in venture capital financing by obtaining a $150 million debt facility from Goldman Sachs Group.
Tamara was founded less than three years ago and has since raised $366 million in debt and stock, making it one of the top “buy now, pay later” businesses in the Gulf. One of the most valuable startups in Europe, Checkout.com, and a subsidiary of the national wealth fund of Saudi Arabia are among its investors.
According to a statement on Thursday, Tamara will use $150 million by Goldman “receivables warehouse facility,” which it claims is a first in the Middle East, to finance product line growth in shopping, payments, and banking. More than 350 people work for the Riyadh-based startup, which has 6 million customers and locations in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Germany, and Vietnam.
Tamara helps hundreds of retailers, including names like IKEA and H&M, process payments. It still sees a lot of room for expansion in the area, where the use of credit cards trails behind more developed markets.
In the region, the company rivals with businesses like Dubai-based Tabby, which has also attracted a sizable amount of foreign investment, including from Sequoia Capital India. Earlier this year, a $58 million funding round valued the company at close to $700 million.
It is unknown what Tamara is worth.
The opening of the Goldman facility comes as startups all over the globe are contending with challenges like rising interest rates. Additional shockwaves were generated in the industry by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
According to Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, chief executive and co-founder of Tamara, “the fintech sector is experiencing a rapid transformation and has received significant global investment in recent years. Despite the global macroeconomic slowdown, the GCC, particularly Saudi Arabia, continues to show strong development, the official said.
