Cairo-based DisrupTech Ventures, an early-stage fund focused exclusively on fintech, has announced its investment in Chari, the Y Combinator-backed startup digitising Morocco’s informal retail sector.
The move, which forms part of Chari’s Series A extension, will see DisrupTech take a seat on Chari’s board of directors. The investment marks DisrupTech’s first in Morocco and its second in Africa outside of its home market of Egypt, signalling a strategic push to back fintech-led infrastructure across the continent.
Chari, founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, began by streamlining procurement for Morocco’s fragmented network of ‘mom-and-pop’ shops, allowing them to order consumer goods via a mobile app.
However, the company is rapidly evolving from its e-commerce roots. Armed with a payment institution license from Morocco’s central bank, Chari is aggressively moving into embedded finance, turning its growing network of over 20,000 retailers into financial access points.
From Storefront to Financial Hub
Chari’s strategy is twofold: build a “super app” for merchants while simultaneously offering its underlying technology as a service.
- The Merchant Super App: Chari is embedding financial services directly into its platform. This includes providing working capital, insurance products, and point-of-sale (POS) terminals. It also allows retailers to act as mini-banks, processing bill payments and mobile top-ups for their local communities.
- Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS): Having built its own core banking system, KYC modules, and card-issuing capabilities in-house, Chari plans to white-label this infrastructure. This will allow other companies, from fintechs to large enterprises, to embed financial products without building the technology from scratch.
For DisrupTech, this fintech-first vision was the primary draw.
“Chari is redefining how financial services are delivered at the grassroots level,” said Mohamed Okasha, Managing Partner at DisrupTech Ventures. “By empowering small shops to act as financial gateways, Chari is creating the foundation for a new, inclusive fintech infrastructure in Morocco. This is exactly the kind of transformative model we seek to support.”
Building on a $12M Round
This latest investment builds on a $12M Series A round Chari raised last October, which was co-led by Tunis-based SPE Capital and Orange Ventures. That round, which also included Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) and Plug and Play, was explicitly earmarked to scale its merchant services and launch the new BaaS platform.
The addition of DisrupTech, a specialised fintech VC, to the board underscores the centrality of the financial services strategy to Chari’s future.
“We are delighted to welcome DisrupTech Ventures as a partner,” said Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and Co-Founder of Chari. “With DisrupTech’s backing, we are accelerating our mission to turn every corner shop into a financial access point.”
By combining a direct-to-merchant application with a broader infrastructure play, Chari is positioning itself as a foundational layer for both commerce and finance in Francophone Africa.