Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech startup, has raised $12 million in a Series A round to expand its platform for small retailers and launch the country’s first Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering.
The round was co-led by SPE Capital and Orange Ventures, with participation from Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Plug and Play, Endeavor Catalyst, and Pincus Capital.
Founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, Chari began by digitising procurement for Morocco’s ubiquitous mom-and-pop shops, streamlining FMCG supply chains through its mobile app. The company, an alumnus of Y Combinator (S21), is now expanding its scope with a dual strategy: building a merchant “super app” and launching a white-label BaaS platform.
For merchants, Chari’s app now includes POS payment solutions, an online payment gateway, a credit bookkeeping tool (Karny), business management capabilities, and services like bill payments, mobile top-ups, and insurance sales.
On the infrastructure side, Chari has built its own core banking, KYC, compliance, and card-issuing systems. The new capital will help it package this technology into an API-driven BaaS product, enabling fintechs and large enterprises to embed financial services without building the backend themselves.
“This $12M Series A is a vote of confidence in Chari’s mission to empower Morocco’s small merchants,” said Belkhayat. “We’re accelerating toward building the go-to super app that delivers everything a mom-and-pop shop needs — from operations to payments to financial services — all in one platform.”
“Chari’s vision — combining merchant services with embedded finance — is exactly the kind of category-defining opportunity that creates huge value,” said Nabil Triki, CEO of SPE Capital.
