Tamara is Saudi Arabia's leading buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech company and one of the Kingdom's most prominent technology unicorns, headquartered in Riyadh. Founded in 2020 during the Covid pandemic by entrepreneurs Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki bin Zarah, and Abdulmohsen Al Babtain, Tamara was the first company in its category to receive a sandbox license from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), and later became the first Saudi company licensed to offer indirect lending solutions from the regulator.

The founders identified a compelling market opportunity: a young, tech-savvy Saudi population, rapidly growing e-commerce adoption, relatively low credit card penetration, and strong cultural preferences for avoiding interest-bearing debt in line with Islamic finance principles. Tamara's response was a Sharia-compliant installment model, allowing consumers to split purchases into three or six installments, or defer payment within 30 days, entirely free of interest charges or hidden fees — positioning itself as a safer, more transparent alternative to cash-on-delivery, which had long dominated online shopping in the region.

Tamara operates as a three-sided platform connecting consumers, merchants, and capital providers, and has grown from a two-person founding team into a major financial technology platform serving over six million customers and more than 15,000 partner merchants, including major regional and global names like Shein, IKEA, Farfetch, Namshi, Noon, and Jarir. The company is regulated by SAMA and holds additional licenses in the UAE and Kuwait, with plans for further expansion across the GCC and broader MENA region.

Financially, Tamara has attracted major institutional backing, including a $110 million Series A round led by Checkout.com (the largest fintech Series A in MENA at the time) and, more recently, a landmark asset-backed financing facility of up to $2.4 billion, arranged with global financial heavyweights including Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Apollo-managed funds.