Tamara is known to be a Saudi business that develops different kinds of financial technology and products. It is one of the leading shopping and payment platforms in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of thousands of people use this platform for some reason or other. While they have been looking for some, they fundraise for a while. And they eventually managed to overcome a funding slump in the world venture capital market by obtaining a $150 million lending facility from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. This facility funding will surely benefit this Saudi business to the fullest. It will flourish their business in several ways.
Tamara and their Business:
Tamara was founded three years ago and has since raised $366 million in debt and equity. This is what made it one of the top “buy now, pay later” businesses in the Gulf. There are various names among its investors and shareholders. For example, one of the most valuable European startups, Checkout.com, and a subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, are among its shareholders.
According to Bloomberg, Tamara will use Goldman’s $150 million “receivables warehousing facility” to finance product line expansion in retail, banking, and payments. Tamara claims this is the first kind of facility funding in the Middle East. More than 350 people work for this Riyadh-based firm, which has 6 million customers. They run their operations in different countries other than Saudi Arabia. Some other countries in this list include the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Egypt, and Vietnam.
Tamara basically works with and helps thousands of retailers, such as H&M and IKEA, process payments. It is not to mention that they find a lot of room for expansion in this region, where the use of credit cards lags behind more developed economies.
The Competition:
The company competes with businesses like Dubai-based Tabby in the region, which has also drawn a sizable amount of foreign investment, including from Sequoia Capital India. Earlier this year, a $58 million fundraising round valued the business at close to $700 million. So Tamara indeed had competition in the market that gave them extra motivation to do even better.
It is still unknown what Tamara is worth. The opening of the Goldman facility comes as companies worldwide are contending with challenges like rising interest rates. Further shockwaves were generated in the industry by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
According to Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, co-founder and chief executive of Tamara, “the fintech sector is undergoing a rapid development and has gained considerable global investment in recent years.” Notwithstanding the global macroeconomic recession, the GCC, particularly Saudi Arabia, continues to grow tremendously, the official said.
