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Tabby says more than 1 million people in the UAE have opened a Tabby Cash account, as the Saudi-headquartered fintech continues its march from financing purchases into holding and moving customers’ money.
The milestone comes two months after the account became available to all eligible UAE residents on September 1, and on the heels of a $233 million Series F announced in September, led by Blue Pool Capital, that valued the company at $6.5 billion.
Tabby Cash charges no setup, account or card fees and offers cashback on spending, and now also allows customers to send money to bank accounts in more than 50 countries without transfer fees, as well as to digital wallets such as GCash, JazzCash and Vodafone Cash.
Customers can also pay telecom, utility and transport bills through Cash, with an option to spread payments over as many as 12 months. Retailer-approved refunds on Tabby purchases can now arrive immediately in a Cash account, making the money available to spend again without waiting for a card refund.
The additions give customers reasons to use Tabby between purchases, whether to send money home or pay household bills, extending the relationship beyond the instalment plans through which the company built its customer base and name.
“Tabby Cash is the fastest growing product we’ve launched,” said Hosam Arab, co-founder and chief executive. “A million accounts in 2 months tells us how much demand there is for an account that works the way people actually spend.”
The product had already attracted more than 150,000 users when FWDstart covered its initial launch in July, ahead of September’s wider rollout. The latest figure counts accounts opened; Tabby hasn’t disclosed how many are active, the balances they hold or the value of transfers processed.
The account rests on the Stored Value Facilities licence Tabby obtained from the UAE central bank in April, which allowed it to hold customer funds, opening a new line of business alongside lending.
Tabby enters that market with an established distribution network. Across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, it reports more than 25 million customers and 70,000 merchant partners. Cash gives the company an opportunity to turn some of those existing relationships into regular spending and payment activity, although it hasn’t disclosed how many account holders are new to Tabby.
The UAE rollout accompanies a separate expansion in Saudi Arabia, where consumer and SME finance licences secured in June permit larger, longer-term loans and working capital for merchants. Consumer plans can cover purchases of up to SAR 50,000, extending Tabby into categories such as education, travel and home furnishing.
Together with Cash, those products broaden a business built around splitting retail purchases into four payments.
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