Tabby, the Saudi buy now, pay later (BNPL) company, announced on September 14, 2026, that it has raised $233 million in a Series F round that values it at $6.5 billion. The deal puts Tabby among the most valuable private fintechs in the Gulf and backs its push beyond installment payments into accounts, wallets, and lending.
Blue Pool Capital leads a mixed primary and secondary round
Blue Pool Capital, a Hong Kong investment firm, led the round, with HSG, Wellington Management, and Arbor Ventures participating. The deal combines newly issued shares with existing ones and includes a liquidity window for employees. Tabby has run share tenders since 2023 that have let staff sell more than $100 million of stock.
Chief executive Hosam Arab said the money will go into Tabby’s two core markets, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, rather than into new countries. “The proceeds are primarily about giving us the capital to go deeper in our two core markets,” he said. European BNPL providers took the opposite route, chasing scale across many markets before consolidating.
Tabby now sells far more than installments
Tabby reports 25 million registered users and says it has been profitable since 2023. Its product line now includes a digital wallet from its acquisition of Tweeq, consumer and small business financing, working capital for merchants, a payment account with cashback, and money transfers.
- Consumer and SME finance licenses from the Saudi Central Bank
- A Stored Value Facilities license in the United Arab Emirates
- A licensed digital wallet, gained through the Tweeq acquisition
- Partnerships with international retailers, including marketplaces
The valuation rests on two untested bets
At $6.5 billion against $18 billion in annualized volume, Tabby is valued at a level few BNPL providers can claim today. That price assumes the product stays profitable once credit losses are counted over a full cycle. No year of results in the region has shown that yet: short-term consumer credit there has not been through a local recession since these loan books came into being.
It also assumes the diversification works. Moving from installments into payment accounts and merchant financing means taking on different competitors, banks among them, at thinner margins and under stricter prudential supervision. European BNPL companies went down that path, with mixed results.
Demographics and policy favor Gulf consumer credit
The Gulf combines a young population, uneven access to bank accounts, and government policy that pushes electronic payments. As in Southeast Asia, short-term credit is often a consumer’s first formal financial product.
Funding the loan book remains the open question. A lender with 25 million users needs a stable funding base, and mature players get there by taking deposits, here through a licensed wallet. That, more than expansion into new markets, is what this round pays for.