UAE’s BNPL startup Tabby grabs $54M funding

Tabby, a Dubai-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform that lets users shop, pay later, and earn cash from over 3,000 global brands like Adidas, IKEA, and Bloomingdale’s, has raised $54 million in a Series B fundraising round.

It follows Tabby’s $50 million Series B investment in August, which valued the company at $300 million.

Tabby collaborates with merchants to provide customers the option of postponing payment for up to 30 days or paying in four equal monthly installments at no cost.

The BNPL provider has raised a total of $104 million in Series B funding, according to the business, and plans to use this extension round to extend its consumer product offering and enable worldwide expansion.

Tabby has raised about $185 million in debt and shares since it began three years ago. Given the firm’s global investments in BNPL firms such as Capital Float and Tillit, Sequoia Capital’s presence in its capital structure provides much-needed knowledge.

“I believe we’re seeing this because we’re not just reducing credit card transactions in our business, but we’re also substituting a far larger consumer expenditure, which is cash,” said Hosam Arab, co-founder, and CEO of Tabby. “The company’s transaction volume has surged by 8 times since August of last year and by 50 times between the previous year and 2020,” added Hosam.

Further adding he said, “Approximately 70 to 80 percent of online purchases are made with cash, and when we provide this payment option to customers, they enthusiastically accept it.” As a result, we feel one of the main reasons for the amazing growth we’ve observed is that adoption in our market outnumbers adoption in any other area we’ve looked at internationally.”

According to him, an unexpected occurrence is that, while still in their infancy, these Middle Eastern countries appear to be adopting BNPL at checkout faster than other established economies. According to Tabby’s CEO, when a new retailer is introduced, roughly 20% of the store’s customers use BNPL as their first option at checkout, increasing to between 30% and 40% over time.

The company has over 1.1 million monthly active customers who shop from over 3,000 brands. For the company’s partners, these users produce over 3 million clicks. Customers using cash on delivery have decreased by more than 10% at retailers who utilize tabby as their payment method, according to the company.

Tabby’s next stop will be Egypt, where the company plans to expand. Arab views the North African country as a promising market for underbanked customers searching for new ways to spend money online that aren’t available to them in the form of cash. Sympl, Shahry, and Khazna, among others, will compete with the enterprise.

Tabby is quickly increasing its personnel and will utilize the funds to acquire more expertise and invest in its product, in addition to worldwide development.

“Consumer-centric digital financial services given in real-time and without friction can help commerce grow and benefit the entire ecosystem.” GV Ravishankar, Sequoia India’s managing director, said, “We continue to be enthusiastic about enterprises that can do so at scale.”

Image Credit: Tabby