Tali Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of stc group, has led a strategic investment in Tarmeez Capital, marking the fintech’s first external funding after growing for four years without outside capital, the companies said on Monday.
Tarmeez Capital, licensed by Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority, operates a Sharia-compliant digital platform that helps companies issue sukuk and other debt instruments.
The Riyadh-based firm said it has facilitated more than 2 billion Saudi riyals ($533 million) of financing programmes and signed up about 180,000 users since launch.
Sukuk volume issued through the platform rose 459% in the past 12 months, Tarmeez said.
The size of Tali Ventures’ investment was not disclosed.
stc group positioned the deal as part of its plan to “back high-growth digital platforms shaping the future of finance,” Majed Al Jarboua, general manager of corporate fund and entrepreneurship, said in a statement.
“Tarmeez Capital is gaining ground in a sector that’s becoming central to how companies access capital in Saudi Arabia,” Al Jarboua said, adding that stc aims to help scale the country’s “next generation of financial infrastructure.”
Founder and chief executive Nasser Al-Saadoun said the fresh capital would expand Tarmeez’s product set and reinforce its proprietary technology, which he claims can complete a sukuk issuance seven times faster than traditional channels.
“We are glad to partner with stc group, whose vision aligns with ours in advancing innovative, Sharia-compliant financial solutions,” he said.
Tarmeez’s growth coincides with a surge in corporate debt issuance across the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s outstanding corporate bond and sukuk market reached 140 billion riyals in 2024, according to Capital Market Authority data.
Issuances completed via CMA-licensed digital platforms, of which Tarmeez is one, totalled 3.5 billion riyals last year, up 127% from 2023, while the number of individual deals rose more than threefold to 4,527.
Recent transactions arranged by Tarmeez include Sharia-compliant financings for builder Red Sea International and developer RASF Real Estate.
Red Sea International used proceeds to supply prefabricated facilities for energy-services company Baker Hughes and giga-project developer Red Sea Global.
Besides widening market access for institutional investors, Tarmeez said its platform is opening sukuk investments to the retail public, a feature it argues meshes with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals of financial inclusion and broader capital-market participation.
Al-Saadoun said Tarmeez aims to help lift the Saudi sukuk and debt market to 954 billion riyals by 2030. “Our focus is on scaling the platform, deepening market participation and supporting a dynamic, globally competitive financial sector,” he said.