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.
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
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
Also Read: RØDE Adds Direct iPhone Pairing To Wireless GO And Pro Mics
Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
