Moroccan startup, Chari, has closed a bridge financing at a $100-million valuation as it prepares to test Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services with its existing clients across Francophone Africa in line with its strategic plans to expand operations and deepen its presence in the fintech space.
Chari is a B2B e-commerce and fintech startup co-founded in 2020 by Sophia Alj and Ismael Belkhayat, The company digitizes the heavily fragmented FMCG sector in French-speaking Africa.
Traditional convenience stores in Morocco and Tunisia use Chari to order all the supplies that they require and receive them in under 24 hours.
According to a press release issued by the fintech startup, the bridge round was led by Saudi-based venture capital fund Khwarizmi Ventures, AirAngels (Airbnb Alumni Investors) and Afri Mobility, the VC arm of AKWA Group, a leading conglomerate led by Moroccan multimillionaire Aziz Akhannouch.
The new institutional investors will join Chari’s current backers, which include Y Combinator, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital, Plug n Play, Orange Ventures, Harvard University Management Company, Village Capital and P1 Ventures.
Ismael Belkhayat, CEO of Chari and a Cornell University alumnus, said Chari will use the capital injection from the bridge round to test the BNPL services with its existing clients.
He noted that Chari has chosen a few shop owners to test out the service, which caters to customers like Nigeria’s Carbon Zero, South Africa’s Payflex and Kenya’s LipaLater, which just secured $12 million in equity and debt financing.
Following the integration of the new services, Chari will purchase a local credit firm to allow shop owners to lend money to customers and build their businesses.
The move comes three months after the Moroccan business obtained $5 million in a venture fundraising round and purchased Karny.ma, a Moroccan ledger book with more than 50,000 active users.
The acquisition of the credit book app provided the startup with important data on the loans made to clients by grocery businesses. This enables Chari to analyze the creditworthiness of the unbanked shop owners and select the most appropriate payment arrangements for them.
