From Riyadh’s $2.4B BNPL deal to a messy Curve–Lloyds takeover fight, fintech didn’t slow down. Add in record-breaking global raises, Germany’s funding surge, and ClearScore’s profit triple, and you’ve got the week’s stories investors and operators are already trading on Slack.
1) Tamara Locks $2.4B in Shariah-Compliant Firepower
Tamara just rewrote the Gulf fintech playbook.
The Riyadh-based buy-now-pay-later leader has lined up one of the region’s largest fintech funding packages: a Shariah-compliant facility worth up to $2.4 billion, anchored by Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Apollo funds.
The deal refinances and expands a previous $500 million facility, with $1.4 billion committed now and another $1 billion available over three years, pending approvals.
Founded in 2020, Tamara has already crossed 20 million customers and hit unicorn status in 2023 after a $340M Series C led by SNB Capital and Sanabil (a Public Investment Fund arm). The new capital supercharges its credit and payments expansion while reinforcing its Shariah positioning: no interest, no speculation, asset-backed and risk-shared.
That framing could prove a competitive edge. Rival Tabby and others race for share in the Gulf’s BNPL boom, but Tamara’s insistence on compliance with Islamic finance principles lets it tap into a broader base of consumers and investors who see ethical alignment as non-negotiable.
For the region, the message is bigger than Tamara: international capital is flowing into Shariah-compliant fintech, bridging Wall Street money with Gulf regulatory norms.
For Tamara, it’s the dry powder to move from a fast-scaling startup to a payments institution with staying power.
2) Curve’s £120M Lloyds Sale Turns Into a Boardroom Brawl
The £120 million acquisition of Curve by Lloyds Banking Group was meant to be a lifeline.
Instead, it’s turned into a fight.
IDC Ventures, which owns around 12% of Curve, has called for the removal of chair Lord Stanley Fink, accusing the board of sidelining investor concerns and mishandling the sale process.
Curve, founded in 2016, made its name with a digital wallet that unifies multiple cards into one platform, raising more than £250M across its growth years.
But by 2023, its valuation stood far higher than the £120M Lloyds is now offering. That steep haircut has left investors frustrated. FinTech Weekly first reported earlier this month that directors had resigned over the deal terms; IDC’s campaign confirms those tensions have spilled into the open.
Lloyds, for its part, sees Curve as a strategic fit – an in-house payments platform that reduces reliance on Apple Pay and Google Wallet. But IDC’s move injects uncertainty. The investor has enlisted legal counsel and warned of possible litigation if governance and valuation concerns aren’t addressed.
For fintech watchers, the Curve saga is a case study in consolidation under pressure. Banks want the tech. Startups under strain need the exits. But when valuations fall this far, governance flashpoints are inevitable and they can threaten to derail the very deals meant to save a business.
3) Why Fintech Firms Are Raising Record Capital in 2025
Fundraising across fintech is running at full tilt.
The examples tell the story: Tamara secured up to $2.4 billion in fresh financing, SumUp is preparing a stock market debut that could value it at $15 billion, HALA closed a $157 million Series B, VentureSouq rolled out a second fintech fund, and UK wealth platform Chip raised £6 million at a £208 million valuation.
What’s driving the surge is a mix of consumer habits and investor priorities. Since the pandemic, digital payments, BNPL plans, and app-based savings have become routine financial tools. That permanence is pulling in global institutions, from Goldman Sachs and Citi to sovereign funds like PIF and Mubadala, which see these platforms less as “startups” and more as core financial infrastructure.
In Saudi Arabia, the capital wave aligns neatly with Vision 2030, the national program designed to expand access to finance for small and mid-sized businesses while speeding up digital transformation. That backdrop makes fintech a natural target for both domestic and international investors.
The size of these raises also hints at what comes next.
For investors, the pattern is clear: capital is concentrating in companies that already have scale, loyal users, and regulatory traction.
For the sector, 2025 is starting to look like the year fintech moved fully into the mainstream of global finance.
4) Germany’s Fintech Funding Surges 4.3x in Q2
Germany’s fintech scene just had a breakout quarter. Between April and June 2025, start-ups pulled in $666 million across 25 deals – more than four times the $153 million raised in the same stretch last year, when only 13 transactions closed.
The biggest headline came from Munich’s Scalable Capital. The digital investment platform secured $177 million in fresh funding, the largest round in its history. The raise was led by Sofina and Noteus Partners, with continued backing from Balderton, Tencent, and HV Capital. Scalable now counts over one million clients, manages more than $34.3 billion in assets, and has brought in more than $535 million in total funding since launch.
Deal sizes are also getting larger. The average ticket in Q2 reached $26.6 million, more than double the $11.8 million logged a year earlier and well above Q1’s $20.9 million. That shift points to deeper conviction among both domestic and international investors.
Quarter on quarter, momentum is still climbing.
Funding in Q2 rose 67% from Q1’s $398 million, and the number of transactions increased from 19 to 25.
For Germany, it’s another sign that the country is establishing itself as one of Europe’s most reliable growth markets for fintech, especially in investment platforms bringing retail users into the capital markets.
5) ClearScore UK Triples Profit as Revenue Nears £90M
ClearScore’s UK arm has just posted a record year. Revenue for the 12 months to December 2024 reached £89.7 million, up 17% from the prior year, while operating profit jumped to £18.8 million – three times the £6.4 million it booked in 2023.
Growth was fuelled by heavier use of the platform. UK customers bought more than 1.5 million credit products in 2024, including cards, personal loans, and car finance. Over 40 exclusive lender offers helped drive those volumes. The company’s open banking arm, D•One, also gained traction: nearly a quarter of lending on ClearScore’s marketplace now relies on data shared directly with lenders such as NewDay and Zopa.
The group has been active on the strategic front as well. In January 2025 it acquired credit marketplace Aro Finance, adding embedded finance channels to its model. By July, the launch of ClearScore Everywhere allowed the firm’s matching technology to appear inside partner platforms, broadening its reach. Financing support has followed too: a £30 million facility from HSBC Innovation Banking is being used to accelerate global growth.
ClearScore now counts close to 10 million international users across South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. At the group level, which also includes DriveScore (630,000 users who have logged more than 2.5 billion miles) and D•One, annual revenue is approaching £150 million.
The company marked its tenth anniversary this summer with momentum at home and a stronger international footprint – evidence that its credit marketplace model is both scalable and profitable.
