Saudi fintech company Tamara has closed the Middle East’s largest ever Series A funding round, rais…
Saudi fintech company Tamara has closed the Middle East’s largest ever Series A funding round, raising USD 100 million.
The Series A was led by one of Tamara’s partners, London-headquartered online payments provider Checkout.com, while Latham & Watkins acted as legal counsel to Tamara on the funding.
The fintech company, founded only last year and with offices in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Vietnam, plans to use the proceeds raised to drive its growth across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Tamara completed a seed round financing in January of this year, raising USD 6 million, also a first in the market for being the largest seed round in Saudi Arabia to date. Since then, it has held a reputation as one of the quickest-growing start-up companies in the Middle East’s history of venture capital.
“We are proud to announce the closing of the largest Series A round in the region of USD 110 Million led by our partners Checkout.com. This marks the beginning of an exciting journey for Tamara and a promising one for the fintech industry in Saudi Arabia and the region” said the company in a LinkedIn post yesterday.
Checkout.com executive vice president of global ecommerce Sebastian Reis said in a separate statement: “Our investment in Tamara will help the team realise their vision and expand rapidly, driving greater conversions for retailers and offer more flexibility for consumers.”
Jada, a fund of funds company set up by the public investment funds of Saudi Arabia, also commented on social media: “We congratulate Saudi financial technology company Tamara for buying now and subsequently paying for a series A financing round… worth 412 million riyals (USD 110 million). The Saudi start-up has received a financing investment in its early start-up stages through two… portfolio funds, HALA Ventures and Vision Ventures.”
Latham & Watkins used a team of lawyers led by Dubai counsel Eyad Latif with associates Omar Maayeh, Connie Leung, Peter Norris, and Avinash Balendran, to advise Tamara.
The firm also advised artificial intelligence company Trax on a Series E financing led by BlackRock and SoftBank.
