News
Saudi Startup Tamara Secures $340 Million In Funding
The fintech “buy now, pay later” platform has achieved unicorn status after being valued at $1 billion.
Saudi Arabia’s “buy now, pay later” platform, Tamara, is now worth a staggering $1 billion after a recent equity funding round led by SNB Capital that raised $340 million.
Other investors included Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, and Impulse, who joined existing backers such as Checkout.com, Coatue, and Endeavor Catalyst.
Tamara plans to use the significant cash injection to build new shopping and payment products and services, and intends to become “the next big giant in shopping, payments, and banking,” according to the company’s co-founder and CEO, Abdulmajeed Alsukhan.
“Saudi Arabia and the GCC deserve their place on the world stage for financial technology. Just as Tamara was created by local entrepreneurs nurtured by a supportive local ecosystem and market regulator, we stand here today, humbled and hungry, ready for our own leapfrog moment. This achievement is a testament to the ecosystem, our incredible team, investors, and the collaborative spirit that makes this region a great place for talent to flourish,” the CEO said.
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The chief executive has also announced that Tamara is considering listing on the Saudi Arabian stock exchange and potentially in other markets in the near future. The company’s latest equity funding round comes after a debt-raising move earlier in November 2023 led by Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners.
With the global BNPL market projected to hit $565.8 billion in 2026, the future certainly looks bright for Tamara, with its user base of 10 million and 30,000 partner merchants spread across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait.
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.
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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.
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
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