News

Paymob Partners With Tamara For Seamless BNPL Payments

The partnership is designed to fuel the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises across the MENA region.

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2024

Nour Nasir

Paymob

Leading MENA financial services enabler, Paymob has announced a new partnership with Tamara, the GCC region’s premier shopping and payments platform.

The strategic venture integrates Tamara’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service with Paymob’s secure payment gateway, allowing customers to split payments without hidden fees or interest. Paymob’s infrastructure is already used by 250,000 merchants across the MENA region and Pakistan, while Tamara boasts over nine million registered users and 30,000+ merchants.

Although the two companies already have partnerships with some of the region’s best-known brands, the new agreement is designed to fuel the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. With Tamara’s BNPL solution, merchants typically improve conversions by 15% and gain a 40% increase in average order value. In addition, the likelihood of a customer making repeat purchases climbs by 50%.

The integration of Tamara’s BNPL solution to Paymob’s eCommerce gateway works via a simple software upgrade. The service will initially roll out to merchants in the KSA and UAE in its first phase, with more countries added in future stages.

Islam Shawky, Co-founder and CEO of Paymob explained that “[the] partnership with Tamara delivers on Paymob’s mission to fuel SME growth in the digital economy. There is a massive opportunity to enable merchants in the GCC to capitalize on the power of alternative payment methods, and we are thrilled to partner with Tamara to fuel this growth in MENA”.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Turki Bin Zarah, Co-founder and CCO of Tamara, added, “This partnership with Paymob provides seamless access to Tamara’s services to thousands of SMEs to enable their growth across the region. As a leading commerce enabler, we are revolutionizing how people shop, pay, and bank and are thrilled to partner with Paymob as we deliver on this goal”.

Tamara and Paymob are currently experiencing rapid growth after recent funding rounds. Riyadh-based Tamara secured a $150 million investment from Goldman Sachs, while Paymob’s growth has been driven by funding from PayPal Ventures.

News

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health Is A Private Space For Health Data

A new health mode lets the popular AI platform tap medical records and fitness apps while walling off sensitive information.

Published

6 days ago

January 8, 2026

Nour Nasir

OpenAI

OpenAI has created ChatGPT Health, a separate space inside its chatbot platform for handling medical and wellness data. The opt-in feature starts with a small US cohort before widening out.

Health-related questions have long driven traffic to AI tools. OpenAI says over 230 million people ask ChatGPT about health or insurance each week. The new mode adds personal context to that behavior but stops short of diagnosis or treatment advice.

Users can connect records from participating US providers through b.well and link apps such as Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, Function and Weight Watchers. Some links are US-only, while Apple Health needs iOS. Once connected, ChatGPT can surface patterns in labs, summarize information ahead of a clinic visit or help map diet and exercise choices against past data.

The data sits apart from other chat information. Health has its own memories and does not spill into other conversations. Users can view or delete health memories at any time. OpenAI says this material is not used to train its models.

Security is much heavier in this section too. Health adds isolation and purpose-built encryption on top of the platform’s baseline protections. App connections require explicit permission, and disconnecting cuts the feed immediately.

“ChatGPT Health is another step toward turning ChatGPT into a personal super-assistant that can support you with information and tools to achieve your goals across any part of your life,” wrote Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s applications chief.

Also Read: Deliverect Rolls Out Self-Order Kiosks Across MENA

Physicians had input during development, though OpenAI has not detailed how that shaped the end product. The launch follows Health Bench, a dataset released in May to test models on realistic medical cases.

While currently rooted in the US healthcare ecosystem, the approach may draw interest in the Gulf and wider MENA markets as governments push digital health records and patient portals under modernization programs. Adoption will depend on whether users trust an AI assistant with such personal material and whether it fits clinical routines.

For OpenAI, the move marks a cautious step into regulated terrain and signals a shift toward sector-specific uses of generative AI.