Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Tabby Cash has signed up more than 1 million account holders in the UAE, Riyadh-headquartered financial technology company Tabby said, a figure reached two months after the product was opened to all residents on September 1.
The milestone comes with a wider set of features. Since the September rollout, Tabby has added cross-border transfers, bill payments that can be spread over several months, Zakat and charity payments, and refunds that land in the account straight away.
Tabby pitches the product as a fee-free alternative to a debit account. It runs under the Stored Value Facilities license the Central Bank of the UAE granted to the company, and Tabby says it charges nothing to open the account, keep it or hold the card, while paying cashback on everyday spending.
The biggest addition is international money transfers. Customers can move money from Tabby Cash to bank accounts in over 50 countries without paying a transfer fee, and can also send funds to digital wallets including GCash, JazzCash and Vodafone Cash.
Telecom, utility and transport bills can now be paid from the account as well. Customers can settle a bill in one go or split it into up to 12 monthly payments.
Account holders can also pay Zakat or give to charity associations in Dubai straight from the money held in Tabby Cash.
The fourth change concerns refunds. Once a retailer approves a refund on a purchase made with Tabby, the money is credited to the customer's Tabby Cash account and can be spent immediately. A card refund, by the company's account, typically takes 3 to 10 working days to come through.
Hosam Arab, CEO and Co-Founder of Tabby, said: “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. Sending money home, paying a bill, getting a refund without waiting a week for it. None of that is new. Doing it without the conditions people have come to expect is.”
The account is open to UAE residents aged 18 and over. Opening one is free, and Tabby levies no charge on the account or the card. Cardholders can earn as much as 3% back on categories they pick and on every purchase made abroad, and transfers inside the UAE remain free and unlimited. The instant refunds cover items bought with Tabby Pay Later.
Tabby Cash first launched in July with more than 150,000 people already using it, and the company said then that every adult UAE resident would get access within weeks. At that stage, transfers were limited to local ones, with global transfers described as coming soon.
The cashback terms have also moved on. In its July launch announcement, Tabby said Tabby Plus subscribers would get 3% back on selected categories and on spending abroad, against 1% for other customers, and offered every cardholder the higher 3% rate as a promotion running until November 1, 2026. With that introductory rate now expired, the coming months may show how many of the new account holders keep using the card at the standard rates.
Tabby made its case for the product in the same July release by pointing to the cost of conventional alternatives. According to the company, annual interest on UAE credit cards runs at 30 to 46%, and a single overseas transfer can cost approximately $20 (AED 75) or more before any markup on the exchange rate. Fee-free transfers to over 50 countries could therefore bring Tabby Cash into closer competition with banks and money transfer providers for remittance business.
The account rests on the Stored Value Facilities license Tabby received from the UAE central bank in April, which allows it to hold customer funds. The licensed entity behind Tabby Cash is Tabby Payments LLC. Tabby's credit products, Pay Later and the short-term Tabby Card, are run by a different company in the group, Tabby LLC.
Tabby, which serves Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, says more than 25 million customers and 70,000 brands now use its services, up from the 65,000 retailers it cited in July. Its merchant partners include SHEIN, Amazon, Adidas, IKEA, Jarir, Samsung and noon, according to the company.
In September, a Series F round led by Blue Pool Capital brought in $233 million and valued the company at $6.5 billion. HSG, Wellington Management and Arbor Ventures joined that round. The previous primary raise, a $160 million Series E in February 2025, had put Tabby's value at $3.3 billion.
Back in its home market, the Saudi Central Bank has licensed Tabby to provide finance to consumers and to small and medium-sized enterprises, and the company has bought Tweeq, a digital wallet also licensed by the Saudi regulator, adding accounts, cards and transfers in the kingdom to what it now offers in the UAE.
