The Gulf's open banking backbone - one universal API connecting the region's banks and fintechs.
Tarabut's interlocking-link mark, photographed against the company's signature navy. The name means "connectivity" in Arabic - a plain-spoken label for a company that spent years building the pipes between Gulf banks before the rules for using them existed.
Tarabut - formerly Tarabut Gateway - describes itself as the Middle East and North Africa's first and largest regulated open banking platform. In plain terms, it is the connective layer that lets a bank in Riyadh, a lender in Manama and a fintech app in Dubai exchange financial data and move money through a single, standardized set of APIs. Before that layer existed, moving your own banking data from one institution to another was slow, manual or simply impossible.
The company was founded by Abdulla Almoayed and grew out of a Bahrain regulatory sandbox - a space where regulators let startups experiment before formal rules are written. That timing became the strategy. Tarabut built infrastructure while open banking frameworks were still being drafted, then secured licenses as each Gulf regulator switched them on. Today it operates across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, with a team of roughly 150 spread between the region and the UK.
Its own summary of the mission is unadorned: "Connecting Data. Embedding Finance. Unlocking Opportunity." The bet underneath it is that the Gulf has world-class banks and a young, digital-first population, and that the missing piece was never products - it was connectivity.
A lender that can only guess at your income approves the wrong people - and turns away the right ones. A fintech that has to negotiate a bespoke integration with every bank never reaches scale. A consumer who wants to see all their accounts in one app can't. These are connectivity problems, and Tarabut treats them as engineering problems with engineering answers.
Through Tarabut's platform, a lender can read a customer's real, permissioned bank data to verify income and assess credit in minutes rather than days. A fintech can plug into dozens of banks through one connection instead of dozens. A business can embed financing directly into its checkout. The value shows up as fair credit access for individuals, faster growth for businesses, and deeper insight and compliance for financial institutions.
API-driven open finance infrastructure giving banks and fintechs a compliant way to connect and launch products.
Real-time data aggregation for income verification, transaction categorization, credit risk and consumer insights.
Tools that fold lending and financial services directly into everyday transactions and customer journeys.
Fast, secure account-to-account payment initiation, strengthened by the acquisition of UK platform Vyne.
Specialized embedded financing, including SME point-of-sale financing delivered with partners like Eazypay.
Tarabut licenses its regulated APIs to institutions, earning platform, access and usage-based fees.
The open banking field is crowded - regional players like Lean Technologies, Fintech Galaxy and Dapi, and global names like Plaid and TrueLayer. Tarabut's distinguishing move has been regulation, not just technology. It is the first fintech to hold Open Finance licenses across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the first to secure Category 4 AIS and PIS licenses from the DFSA in the UAE. It was also among the first participants in the Saudi Central Bank's regulatory sandbox.
Licenses in three markets make it a trusted counterparty for conservative banks, not just a data pipe.
Live connections across major Saudi banks give it coverage rivals are still assembling.
Buying Vyne brought account-to-account payment infrastructure in-house rather than renting it.
Tarabut's platform is only as valuable as the institutions connected to it. Its partners span card networks, payments firms, national infrastructure and the region's largest banks.
Strategic partnership on open banking products - credit risk assessment, analytics, cross-border payments and lending.
MoU to deliver SME financing in Saudi Arabia through open banking.
Bahrain's national payments company, partnered for open banking integration.
Partnership delivering SME point-of-sale financing in Bahrain.
Live bank connections include:
Tarabut has raised roughly $57M to date. The headline round is a $32M Series A in May 2023, led by Pinnacle Capital, with Aljazira Capital, Visa and Tiger Global participating. When a card network and a global growth investor back the same round, the signal is that a regional infrastructure player has become a global-grade bet.
Abdulla Almoayed launches the company to build open banking infrastructure for MENA.
Tarabut launches its open banking API and becomes a technology partner for regional banks.
Raises venture capital, including backing from Tiger Global, to expand across the Gulf.
Becomes the first platform to secure Category 4 AIS and PIS licenses from the DFSA in the UAE.
Closes a round led by Pinnacle Capital with Visa and Tiger Global, doubling down on Saudi Arabia.
Buys UK account-to-account payments platform Vyne ahead of new MENA payment rules.
Adds AI capabilities for income verification, credit, fraud detection and compliance.
Bought AI engineering firm Servable to power income verification, credit risk, fraud detection and compliance automation.
Partnered with Eazypay to deliver SME point-of-sale financing in Bahrain.
Signed an MoU with Geidea for SME financing in Saudi Arabia and partnered with Benefit in Bahrain.
Acquired the UK account-to-account payments platform ahead of new MENA regulations.
"Tarabut" means connectivity - literally "to connect" - in Arabic. The name is the product spec.
The company grew out of a Bahrain regulatory sandbox, before open banking rules formally existed in the region.
It dropped "Gateway" from its name as it expanded, becoming simply Tarabut.
The logo's two interlocking links are a visual pun on connected financial networks.
Tarabut operates MENA's first and largest regulated open banking platform, connecting banks and fintechs through a universal API so they can share financial data, initiate payments and build embedded finance products.
Tarabut was founded by Abdulla Almoayed in Bahrain and is now headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with offices across Bahrain, the UAE and the UK.
Tarabut has raised roughly $57M in total, including a $32M Series A in 2023 led by Pinnacle Capital with participation from Visa, Aljazira Capital and Tiger Global.
Its core products span Banking-as-a-Service, data and analytics solutions, embedded finance, account-to-account payments, and point-of-sale and auto financing.
Tarabut operates across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and says its partnerships cover more than 60% of the Saudi banking market, including Alinma, Arab National Bank, Saudi National Bank and Riyad Bank.
Sources: Tarabut.com · FinTech Futures · Wamda · The Paypers · Entrepreneur ME · Open Banking Expo · Arab News · PYMNTS · Businesswire · Crowdfund Insider · StartUp Bahrain · Tracxn · CB Insights. Figures such as revenue and headcount are approximate. Founding year is reported variously as 2016-2018 across sources.