More than one million UAE residents have opened a Tabby Cash account since the product opened to all residents on 1 September. Tabby announced the milestone on Monday 9 November, two months after the wider rollout began.
Chief Executive and Co-Founder Hosam Arab called it the fastest growing product Tabby has launched. The speed matters because Tabby Cash is the company’s first step beyond its original buy now, pay later business into everyday money management.
“The fastest growing product we’ve launched.”
Hosam Arab, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Tabby
What Tabby Cash offers
Tabby Cash is a fee-free alternative to a debit account. It runs under a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. Customers pay no account fee and no card fee, and they can earn up to 3 per cent cashback on chosen categories and international spending.
Local transfers are free and unlimited. Global transfers go to bank accounts in more than 50 countries with no transfer fee, and digital wallets such as GCash, JazzCash and Vodafone Cash are supported. Customers can also split telecom, utility and transport bills into up to 12 monthly payments.
The account also handles refunds on Tabby purchases instantly, while a card refund usually takes three to 10 working days. Customers can pay Zakat or donate to Dubai charities from their balance, which keeps everyday giving inside the same app.
Who can open an account
The account is open to UAE residents aged 18 and over. An Emirates ID is the only document required, and customers can open an account in the app in a few minutes. There is no salary certificate and no credit check.
“There’s no salary certificate and no credit check, because Tabby Cash isn’t credit: it’s your own money.”
Zarik Nabi, Chief Commercial Officer at Tabby
Customer money is held apart from Tabby’s own funds in dedicated accounts with UAE banks. It can only be used for customers’ own payments and transfers, which is a safeguard that matters when a new account grows this fast.
Everyday spending is driving the growth
Nearly half of what people spend on the Tabby Cash card goes on groceries and eating out. Four out of five payments happen in a shop rather than online, which shows the card is being used for daily life rather than only for online shopping.
International transfers are showing the same pattern. About half of the customers who use Tabby Cash to send money abroad for the first time make another transfer the following month. That repeat use is a stronger signal than the headline account number alone.
Tabby has not disclosed how much money customers hold in Tabby Cash accounts or how many of the one million accounts are actively used. The milestone counts accounts opened, so readers should treat it as a sign of demand rather than a measure of daily use.
What comes next for Tabby
Tabby is now testing a business account with a small group of the businesses that already sell through Tabby. Chief Commercial Officer Zarik Nabi said customers should expect to hear more soon, which would take the company from consumer accounts into small business banking.
The wider ambition is to become the primary financial relationship for customers, covering where they spend, borrow, keep and move money. Nabi stopped short of confirming plans to seek a full digital banking licence, and said Tabby will keep building within the licences it already holds.
From a checkout button to a money app
Tabby was founded in Dubai in 2019 by Hosam Arab and Daniil Barkalov. Arab had earlier co-founded Namshi, the online fashion retailer that Emaar acquired in 2019. Tabby is now headquartered in Riyadh and serves more than 25 million customers across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.
The company raised 233 million dollars in September at a 6.5 billion dollar valuation, in a round led by Blue Pool Capital. It has been profitable since 2023 and processes more than 18 billion dollars in annualised transaction volume across more than 70,000 business partners.
That growth rests on licences won over the past year. Tabby holds consumer and SME finance licences in Saudi Arabia and acquired the Saudi digital wallet Tweeq.
It also secured the UAE Stored Value Facilities licence that made Tabby Cash possible. The company is now going deeper in Saudi Arabia and the UAE rather than opening new countries.
