Najm CapitalNajm Fund I + Co-InvestGCC growth equity, infrastructure, and strategic buyouts · Q1 2026 reporting
3
K. Al Rashidi · Director
KR
Matches thesisFinancial Services & FinTech·Partner owner: Sara Al Mazrouei
Inbound source
Banker email
Layla Al RashidiVice President, Technology M&A · Goldman Sachs Gulf
[email protected]Apr 2, 202611:30 AM
Sara — Tabby is running a Series D structured preferred round at $660M pre-money. Goldman is placing the round and wanted to flag the Najm opportunity given your MENA fintech mandate. Tabby is the largest BNPL platform in MENA by GMV and user count, with $1B+ GMV and 10M registered users across UAE and Saudi. The round closes end of May. Teaser and financial model attached.
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Executive summary
Tabby is the MENA region's leading buy-now-pay-later platform with over 10 million users and $1B+ in annualised GMV across UAE and Saudi Arabia. The company leads the category on merchant count (30,000+), user NPS (68), and repeat purchase rate (4.2x annual). The Series D structured preferred at $660M offers Najm a 1.25x participating preference plus upside participation, creating an asymmetric return profile given near-breakeven unit economics on mature cohorts. Key diligence question is competitive intensity from Tamara (Saudi-focused, PIF-backed) and the pace of SAMA credit regulation implementation.
Company snapshot
- Business model
- Split-payment BNPL at checkout (4 instalments, 0% interest to consumer); monetises via merchant discount rate (3.5–5% MDR) and optional late fees; growing into credit cards (Tabby Card) and financial services.
- Products
- BNPL checkout (4-pay) · Tabby Card (credit card) · Tabby for Business (merchant analytics SaaS) · Shopping app (100K+ SKUs aggregated)
- Geography + scale
- Saudi Arabia (60% of GMV) · UAE (35%) · Kuwait (5%, new)
- People
- Hosam Arab (CEO & Co-Founder, ex-Namshi) · Daniil Kiskin (CTO & Co-Founder, ex-Yandex) · Rania Nassar (CFO, ex-HSBC MENA)
Market
- TAM + growth
- MENA BNPL market $25B by 2028 · MENA e-commerce GMV $50B+ · Saudi youth population (60% under 35) primary BNPL adopter cohort
- Competitive set
- Tamara (Saudi-focused, PIF-backed, ~$500M GMV) · Postpay (UAE, smaller) · Spotii (acquired by Zip) · Tabby leads on both geographies simultaneously, a structural advantage.
- Tailwinds
- Saudi Vision 2030 e-commerce target · UAE cashless economy drive · regional credit card penetration still low (35% vs 70% in US) creating BNPL structural demand
Financial profile
- Revenue
- FY2025A revenue $78M · GMV $1.05B annualised · net revenue margin 7.4%
- Growth
- 90% YoY revenue · GMV grew from $420M to $1.05B · merchant base grew 45% to 30K+
- Profitability
- Contribution margin positive on cohorts >12 months · net loss $22M (2x improvement on prior year)
- Unit economics
- CAC $12 per user · LTV $185 over 24 months · 4.2x repeat purchase rate annually
Deal structure
- Round size
- Series D $130M total · $60M Najm allocation
- Valuation
- $660M pre-money · 8.5x FY2025 revenue
- Security
- 1.25x participating preferred — full participation above 1.25x
- Co-investors
- PayPal Ventures · Mubadala Capital · STC Ventures · Endeavor Catalyst
Thesis fit · Financial Services & FinTech
Regulatory moat in target geographyStrong
Tabby holds SAMA and CBUAE BNPL licences, both issued to only 3 operators in the GCC — significant barrier to new entrants.Revenue trajectoryStrong
90% YoY revenue growth on a $78M base, with Saudi GMV growing faster than UAE.Path to profitabilityPartial
Contribution-positive on mature cohorts but company-level breakeven pushed to FY2028 due to Tabby Card launch costs.Competitive intensityPartial
Tamara is PIF-backed and Saudi-focused — potential price war on MDR could compress unit economics in the larger market.SAMA credit regulation riskWeak
Pending SAMA credit bureau reporting requirements (2026 implementation) could increase defaults and reduce GMV growth.Risks + mitigants
Tamara competitive escalation — PIF backing enables aggressive pricing and merchant exclusives in SaudiMitigant: Tabby's dual-geography model (UAE + Saudi) and Tabby Card upsell create a differentiated value proposition Tamara cannot match from a Saudi-only base
SAMA credit bureau reporting requirement (2026) could increase credit losses if borrower quality deterioratesMitigant: Tabby's existing underwriting model already incorporates credit bureau inputs from UAE AECB; Saudi adaptation is in progress
Take rate compression as large merchants (e.g., Noon, Namshi) negotiate lower MDRs at scaleMitigant: Tabby Card introduces a direct consumer revenue stream independent of merchant MDR, diversifying monetisation
Similar deals in playbook
Klarna (Europe benchmark)2024Watchlisted
Klarna re-rated at 12x revenue pre-IPO after profitability improvement. Tabby at 8.5x with faster growth is relatively cheap if breakeven timeline holds.Postpay (UAE)2023Passed
Passed on Postpay at $80M — single-geography, no credit product. Tabby is a materially better business on every dimension. Our pass on Postpay was correct in hindsight.Preliminary diligence items
1.SAMA and CBUAE licence review — scope, limits, and credit bureau reporting obligations
2.Cohort-level loss rate analysis by vintage and geography (UAE vs Saudi)
3.Tabby Card unit economics modelling — interchange revenue, credit loss assumptions
4.Hosam Arab references: Namshi co-founders + current Tabby board members
5.Competitive intelligence on Tamara MDR pricing in Saudi — is there a race to zero?
Deal progressionStage 3 of 6
InboundCIM received · initial parse
Quick LookMemo drafted · thesis match
Diligence scopingWorkstreams + owners definedWith: Sara Al Mazrouei
Diligence activeData room · expert calls · model
IC memoDrafted → IC review
DecisionPursue · pass · watch
Co-investor set
PayPal Ventures
Mubadala Capital
STC Ventures
Endeavor Catalyst
Structure
1.25x participating liquidation preference