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Tamara has been assigned an A- long-term credit rating with a Stable outlook from Simah Rating Agency (Tassnief), the company's first official credit rating, which it framed as a key step toward tapping local capital markets and diversifying its funding sources.
Tassnief cited Tamara's strong asset quality, improving profitability and robust risk management in its assessment. "This rating is an independent endorsement of the strength of our business model, the quality of our portfolio and the discipline of our risk management as we continue to scale responsibly," said Mohammad Alahmadi, Tamara's chief financial officer, adding that it supports the company's ambition to broaden access to "fair, transparent and Sharia-compliant financing in the Kingdom."
The rating slots into a funding architecture Tamara has been building for three years, so far almost entirely with international capital. Goldman Sachs arranged a $500 million securitisation of its receivables in 2023, the first of its kind in Saudi, which was refinanced and upsized in September to a facility of up to $2.4 billion backed by Goldman, Citi and Apollo funds. An investment-grade mark from the Kingdom's domestic rating agency is the prerequisite for the next stage, riyal-denominated issuance, including sukuk, sold to Saudi institutional investors.
The credit profile behind the rating has shifted quickly. Tamara turned profitable over the first nine months of 2025 as revenue doubled and credit costs fell, then reported first-quarter revenue up 210% to SAR 670 million with net profit near five times higher, its accumulated losses flipping into positive retained earnings for the first time as its Islamic financing product scaled from zero to 27% of revenue.
FWDstart's analysis of the 2025 results noted the structural reason funding depth matters: receivables grow faster than collections in a BNPL book expanding at triple-digit rates, making the funding stack the binding constraint on growth.
Local issuance would also complete a pattern. Tamara has raised no equity since its $340 million Series C in late 2023, which made it Saudi Arabia's first homegrown fintech unicorn at a valuation above $1 billion, backed by Sanabil Investments, the PIF-owned investor, and SNB Capital. Growth since has been funded through debt, and a domestic rating shifts part of that reliance from global private credit desks to the Saudi market the company serves.
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