A $233 million Series F round has put Tabby at a $6.5 billion valuation, and every dollar came from investors already on the shareholder register. Blue Pool Capital led the round. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai backs the Hong Kong firm, and HSG, Wellington Management and Arbor Ventures took part alongside it. Tabby announced the deal on Monday.
The new figure compares with $4.5 billion in October, when early backers sold shares in a secondary transaction. Eight months before that, a $160 million Series E priced the company at $3.3 billion. The Saudi fintech has roughly doubled in value since February last year, without a single share changing hands in public.
Who set the price, and who signs it off
Existing shareholders wrote the cheque, so the $6.5 billion mark reflects the judgement of insiders rather than a fresh test by outside money. That distinction matters for anyone reading the number as a market verdict. Blue Pool Capital had already co-led the Series E, and Wellington Management took part in that round too. Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala sits on the register as well.
The deal has not closed. Completion depends on regulatory approvals, including clearance from the Saudi Central Bank, and until then Tabby at a $6.5 billion valuation is a proposal rather than a fact. In effect, the regulator holds a veto over the ownership of a company it licensed only in the past year for consumer and small business lending. Tabby funding moves through two gates: the investors who price it and the authorities who permit it.
Part of the money will not enter the business at all. The transaction combines new shares with the sale of existing ones, giving employees a route to cash out. Tabby says staff, current and former, have sold more than $100 million of stock through tenders since 2023.
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How Tabby at $6.5 billion valuation moves beyond buy now pay later
Founded in 2019, Tabby built its name by letting shoppers split a purchase at checkout. The licences gathered over the past year point to something larger. Saudi Arabia has licensed the company to offer consumers bigger and longer-term loans and to extend working capital to businesses. In the UAE, a Stored Value Facilities licence from the central bank underpins Tabby Cash, a product the company positions as an alternative to a traditional debit account, with no account or card fees.
Chief executive and co-founder Hosam Arab said the proceeds are mainly about going deeper in those two core markets. Scale already supports the claim. Tabby processes more than $18 billion in annualised transaction volume across 25 million registered users, and it works with 70,000 businesses, among them Amazon and Shein. The company says it has been profitable since 2023.
Each new licence arrives with a supervisor attached. Saudi Arabia’s central bank oversees the lending business, and the Central Bank of the UAE oversees the stored value licence behind Tabby Cash. The Series F pays for the expansion, and it pays for the compliance work the expansion requires.
What the number means for a Tabby IPO
By Bloomberg’s reckoning, the round leaves Tabby at a $6.5 billion valuation, above the market value of Klarna. The New York-listed buy now pay later company has lost more than 60 percent of its value since listing last September and now trades at about $5.2 billion. Public investors have marked down Klarna. Private insiders have marked up Tabby.
Arab has not put a date on a Tabby IPO. He said the company is focused on scaling its core business and its newer products, and, being profitable and well capitalised, it does not “need to force the timing”. When a listing does come, he added, Tabby will pick the venue that suits the company, its shareholders and long-term growth.
Until then, accountability for Tabby at a $6.5 billion valuation rests with a small circle: the investors who set the price, the regulators who must approve the round, and a company answerable to both. A public market would widen that circle. For now, the shareholders have chosen to keep it narrow.
