Tabby Cash Passes 1 Million UAE Accounts Two Months After Launch
The fee-free stored-value account has added transfers, bill payments and instant refunds since going live to all UAE residents on 1 September.
Tabby Cash has crossed 1 million accounts in the UAE, two months after the product opened to every resident in the country on 1 September. The company frames it as the quickest launch in its history.
"Tabby Cash is the fastest growing product we've launched. A million accounts in 2 months tells us how much demand there is for an account that works the way people actually spend," said Hosam Arab, CEO and Co-Founder at Tabby.
Tabby Cash is the fastest growing product we've launched. A million accounts in 2 months tells us how much demand there is for an account that works the way people actually spend,
The product is pitched as a fee-free substitute for a debit account. There is nothing to pay to open it, no charge to hold it and no card fee. Users earn cashback on routine spending. Tabby Cash runs on a Stored Value Facilities licence issued by the Central Bank of the UAE.
What has been added since September
The account has expanded well beyond holding and spending money. Customers can now move funds out to lenders abroad, and they can do it at no cost, with transfers to banks in over 50 countries supported. Digital wallets are also on the list, among them GCash, JazzCash and Vodafone Cash.
Bills can be settled from the balance as well, covering telecoms, utilities and transport. Anyone who would rather spread the cost can divide a bill into as many as 12 instalments.
Giving runs through the same balance. Zakat can be paid directly from Tabby Cash, as can donations to charitable associations in Dubai. Refunds work differently too: money back on a Tabby purchase lands in the balance as soon as the retailer signs off, against the 3 to 10 working days Tabby says card refunds usually take.
The scale of the base matters for what comes next. Tabby counts more than 25 million customers and 70,000 brands across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, so a UAE account product that reaches 1 million users in eight weeks gives the company a direct relationship with shoppers rather than one mediated by a checkout page. In September it raised US$233 million at a US$6.5 billion valuation, a round led by Blue Pool Capital.
