Tabby Review

Tabby is a buy now, pay later provider for businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Hosam Arab and Daniil Barkalov founded it in Dubai in 2019, and it is now headquartered in Riyadh. Shoppers split a purchase into four interest-free monthly payments, or into 6, 8 or 12 payments for bigger baskets. The merchant is paid the full amount less Tabby's fee and does not carry the shopper's credit or fraud risk. Tabby says it has been profitable since 2023. In its September 2026 funding announcement ($233 million at a $6.5 billion valuation, led by Blue Pool Capital and still subject to regulatory approval), it reported more than $18 billion in annualised transaction volume, 25 million registered users and 70,000 business partners. The Saudi Central Bank licensed Tabby Finance as a buy now, pay later company in November 2025 and granted it consumer and SME finance licences in June 2026. In the UAE, its Pay Later credit is provided by Tabby LLC and its Tabby Cash wallet runs under a Central Bank of the UAE Stored Value Facilities licence. Tabby publishes how its pricing works but not the rates. Each merchant gets a percentage commission set by industry and business profile, plus a fixed fee per successful order, both written into its contract. Payouts go out weekly on Mondays, with a payout fee of AED/SAR 6, or AED/SAR 25 on payouts under 2,500. The published UAE Merchant Terms (v2.0.0, 17 July 2026) let Tabby impose a reserve held for 180 days or longer and withhold settlements. Either side can walk away on 30 days' notice.

What Tabby is

Tabby describes itself as the Middle East's largest buy now, pay later provider. Hosam Arab and Daniil Barkalov founded it in Dubai in 2019. TechCrunch dates the founding to late 2019, with the service going live in early 2020, and Forbes Middle East names both founders. Tabby announced in 2023 that it was moving its headquarters to Saudi Arabia, its largest market, and its press releases now give Riyadh as its headquarters. Shoppers use it at checkout to split a purchase into four interest-free monthly payments, or into 6, 8 or 12 payments for bigger purchases. Tabby approves the shopper, pays the merchant, and collects the instalments itself.

Tabby has grown into a wider consumer finance app. In September 2024 it acquired Tweeq, a Saudi digital wallet licensed by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). On 10 November 2025 SAMA licensed Tabby Finance as a buy now, pay later company. Tabby describes that as graduating from SAMA's regulatory sandbox. In April 2026 the Central Bank of the UAE granted Tabby a Stored Value Facilities licence for its Tabby Cash account. In June 2026 SAMA added consumer and SME finance licences, which allow longer plans on purchases up to SAR 50,000 and working capital for merchants.

It is well funded and independent. On 14 September 2026 Tabby announced a $233 million round at a $6.5 billion valuation, led by existing investor Blue Pool Capital with HSG, Wellington Management and Arbor Ventures. Tabby says the deal is still subject to regulatory approvals, including the Saudi Central Bank's. This came after a $160 million Series E at $3.3 billion in February 2025 and a secondary share sale in October 2025 that implied $4.5 billion. Tabby says it has been profitable since 2023 and processes more than $18 billion in annualised volume for 25 million registered users and 70,000 business partners. Its own pages disagree on the merchant count: 70,000 in the September 2026 release, 65,000+ on its business page and in mid-2026 releases, and 'over 40,000' on its help-centre About page, which also still gives the older $4.5 billion valuation. Press reports since 2023 have linked Tabby to a listing on the Saudi Exchange, but we found no listing announcement from Tabby.

Where it operates

Tabby signs merchants that are legally registered in Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Saudi Arabia is its largest market. Its sources are inconsistent about Kuwait. The help centre lists the Kuwaiti dinar as a supported currency, its About page and press releases up to June 2026 say Tabby serves Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, and it still runs a Kuwait version of its site with a business page offering Pay in 4 and payment links. But the September 2026 funding announcement names only Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the merchant eligibility page covers only those two, and the developer documentation handles only AED and SAR amounts. A Kuwaiti business should confirm availability directly.

How the merchant model works

Tabby is the lender, not a payment processor sitting under your merchant account. You integrate Tabby as a payment method. When a shopper chooses it, Tabby decides whether to approve them and at what limit, and you capture the order once you have confirmed it. You are then paid the full order value less Tabby's fees on your next payout. The help centre says you get paid 'regardless if your customers pay Tabby', and that once a transaction is authorised Tabby takes on the risk 'whether or not it turns out to be a fraudulent transaction'.

Integration is one of Tabby's strengths in its markets. It has plugins for the Saudi and regional platforms Salla, Zid, Matjrah and ExpandCart as well as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento 2, OpenCart and Salesforce, and its developer documentation also lists Odoo. There is a REST API with payment and dispute webhooks. Payment links cover social-media, WhatsApp and phone sales. Tabby Card brings pay-in-4 to physical tills in the UAE using the terminal you already have. A merchant dashboard and a Tabby Business mobile app handle orders, refunds, disputes and payout reports. Merchants who offer Tabby can also list their stores, locations and product catalogues in the Tabby app for free.

Pricing

Tabby explains the structure of its pricing but not the numbers. As of September 2026 its help centre describes a variable commission rate, which 'may differ from one merchant to another based on factors such as industry and business profile', plus a fixed fee per transaction on each successful order. Both are written into your contract and, Tabby says, include payment-gateway charges. The Merchant Terms define the merchant fee as a percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction, exclusive of UAE taxes, transfer charges and foreign-exchange fees on cross-border transactions. VAT is charged on Tabby's commission, not on the order value. Third-party guides quote very different commission ranges for Gulf pay-later providers, so treat any figure you have not been quoted in writing as a guess. The site's reviews of Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay found the same thing: none of them publishes a merchant rate card (for Klarna, a US rate card).

The Merchant Terms contain several charges and penalties worth knowing before you sign:

• Refunds: on a cancelled or refunded order Tabby keeps 'the full fixed fee originally charged' plus '2% of the percentage-based component of the Merchant Fee', and returns the rest of the percentage fee. On partial refunds this applies only to the refunded part.
• Surcharging: if you put restrictions or charges on Tabby shoppers that do not also apply to debit-card payments, Tabby may add 1% to your merchant fee on all transactions, and the terms treat it as a material breach.
• Signing through a partner: if an existing merchant brings in a third-party channel partner, Tabby may add up to 0.3% per transaction for as long as the arrangement lasts.
• Tabby Card: the terms set a separate Tabby Card fee once the service is activated at your stores (the help centre describes it as your usual merchant fee). Your own acquirer's card processing and interchange fees on those sales are also yours to pay, and refunds on Tabby Card sales carry Refund Fees.
• Payouts: AED/SAR 6 per payout, or AED/SAR 25 on a fixed-cycle payout under AED/SAR 2,500.

Payouts and holds

Tabby pays out weekly, on working Mondays, by bank transfer. The fixed cycle pays every week whatever the balance. The flexible cycle waits until your net balance reaches AED/SAR 2,500, which suits small merchants who want to avoid the AED/SAR 25 fee on small payouts. You change the cycle by asking partner support. The terms mention earlier settlement on request, 'subject to applicable fees', but Tabby publishes no faster schedule. For comparison, the site's Klarna review found that Klarna sets its schedule per contract, and Klarna's own example is a weekly payout with a one-week delay. The site's Affirm review found that Affirm calculates settlement daily and pays by ACH in one to three business days. For a retailer used to faster card settlement, weekly payouts are a real working-capital cost.

The Merchant Terms give Tabby broad rights to hold money. It can impose a reserve at any time, based on volume, chargeback and refund rates or 'overall risk profile', and hold it for 180 days or longer. It can keep the reserve permanently if it suspends a merchant for excessive losses, refunds or 'simply having a high risk profile'. Separately, it can withhold settlements for a 180-day Withholding Period over a breach or suspected breach, unpaid dues, or documents it finds incomplete or unverifiable. It can also offset anything you owe any Tabby group company against your payouts. The help centre adds that a payout can be held for an additional risk review. None of this is unusual for a lender carrying risk on your sales, but these terms are more open-ended than most.

Contract and termination

You apply online and, if approved, sign Principal Terms that set your fees, payout cycle and contract period, alongside the published Merchant Terms. The version we read (v2.0.0, dated 17 July 2026) is issued by Tabby LLC in Dubai and governed by UAE law. Saudi merchants use a separate KSA dashboard, and we did not find a separate published Saudi version, so check which entity and law your contract names. Either side can terminate for convenience on 30 days' written notice, and there is no early-termination fee. Tabby can change fees or terms on 30 days' email notice, or immediately where a law or regulator requires it. If you reject a change, you can leave.

Tabby can suspend or terminate with immediate effect for a long list of reasons. They include material breach; legal, reputational or operational risk; suspected fraud; insolvency; not answering Tabby for 10 business days; and a Monthly Default Rate of 5% or more for three consecutive months. That rate is the share of the month's shopper payments that are more than 30 days overdue. So although you are not liable when shoppers fail to repay, a customer base that repays badly can still cost you the service. Tabby's total liability to you is capped at 50% of the merchant fees owed under the agreement.

Disputes and buyer protection

Tabby runs its own dispute process instead of card-scheme chargebacks for pay-later orders. Online Pay in 4 and Pay over time orders are covered by its Buyer Protection (Tabby Care) programme, apart from exempt categories such as travel, flights, services, medical clinics and insurance. Shoppers must contact you first. If they then report an issue to Tabby, their remaining payments are paused. You have 14 days to approve or challenge the dispute, and Tabby acts as arbitrator on challenged cases. The Merchant Terms are stricter than the help centre. They give you 10 business days to resolve a dispute Tabby has validated and 3 business days to send documents it asks for. If you miss those deadlines, or your evidence does not satisfy Tabby, it can decide for the shopper and ignore anything you send later. It then recovers the refund plus Refund Fees from your settlements without further notice.

Reputation and complaints

We found no named lawsuit, regulatory fine or enforcement action against Tabby in Saudi or UAE regulator announcements or in news coverage. Its regulatory record consists of licences: SAMA's November 2025 BNPL licence for Tabby Finance, SAMA's June 2026 consumer and SME finance licences, and the UAE central bank's April 2026 Stored Value Facilities licence.

Its public review profile is a warning sign. When we checked on 28 September 2026, Trustpilot was not showing a rating for Tabby. The page said the rating was unavailable because of a breach of Trustpilot's guidelines, and that Trustpilot had removed a number of fake reviews for the company. The 2,033 remaining reviews were sharply split, 68% five-star and 26% one-star. Most reviewers are shoppers, and the negative reviews complain about payment and refund problems, hard-line collections calls and unexplained restrictions on accounts. One September 2026 reviewer who described themselves as a Tabby partner advised other businesses against signing up. Shopper complaints matter to merchants because the people complaining are your customers at checkout.

Who Tabby suits

Tabby is close to essential for a Saudi or UAE retailer in fashion, electronics, beauty, furniture or travel, where shoppers expect a pay-later option at checkout and Tabby is one of the most widely used. It suits merchants on Salla, Zid, Shopify or WooCommerce who want a plugin, have margins that can absorb a pay-later commission, and can wait a week for their money. It is a poorer fit for low-margin sellers, businesses that need daily settlement, and merchants outside Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Before signing, get the commission and fixed fee in writing and ask what reserve, if any, Tabby will set. Keep in mind that the published terms allow Tabby to hold funds for six months.