The Saudi-based buy-now-pay-later BNPL company said it already has Namshi, SHEIN and Swarovski on board and hopes to sign up hundreds more merchants in the coming months
Tamara, a Saudi-based ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) platform, is set to expand its operations into the UAE. Customers across the UAE will be able to split their payments interest-free at leading retailers including Namshi, SHEIN, Styli, Fitness Time, Faces and Swarovski, the company said. The startup said it hoped to sign up with hundreds more merchants in the coming months for its services.Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, CEO and co-founder of Tamara, said: “Given the strong market potential and current growth rates, we anticipate signing up 1,000 merchants here by the end of the year,” he added, saying that Dubai is the natural second home for Tamara. Tamara’s move to enter the UAE market follows new research by Checkout.com the lead investor in the startup’s $110 million Series A funding round which revealed that UAE consumers are among those most likely to use BNPL this year.
The survey showed that 31 percent of UAE residents were planning to use the technology in the coming 12 months. The UAE was followed by Saudi Arabia at 27 percent, Kuwait at 26 percent and Bahrain at 18 percent for use of the BNPL model, the company said.The UAE is a leading market for financial technology in the MENA region, with non-cash payments already surpassing cash payments across all transactions, and are expected to reach more than 70 percent of transactions by 2023 according to the MENA FinTech Association.
The BNPL company was founded in 2020 in Riyadh, was the first to acquire a sandbox license by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in its category at the time. It will now operate in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE and will be available both online and in-store through Tamara’s customer app. Tamara works with global retail leaders like Adidas, IKEA, L’Occitane, and Yves Saint Laurent, as well as top regional brands like Namshi, Abyat, Faces, Niceone, and Golden Scent, offering payment solutions to more than 3,500 merchants across the GCC.
Source: This news is originally published by arabianbusiness