Three years ago, a Moroccan e-commerce startup approached every bank in the country to request Banking-as-a-Service. But they could not help them. So the founders approached the central bank, obtained a payment institution license, and built the entire tech stack themselves.
In this Embedded Finance Review Podcast episode, I speak with Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and co-founder of Chari. Chari is a Y Combinator-backed startup that has become Morocco's first VC-backed company with a full payment institution license. What started as a B2B marketplace for small retailers has evolved into both a merchant super app and a Banking-as-a-Service platform serving third-party clients across Morocco.
Ismael previously worked as a consultant at BCG before becoming a serial entrepreneur in Morocco. Chari is his third venture after selling a property portal and building a ride-hailing app that became Bolt in Morocco.
Key Takeaways:
- Why Moroccan banks couldn't deliver BaaS in 2022 and how that led Chari to build everything in-house
- What it actually takes to build a licensed fintech stack from scratch (core banking, card management, payment gateway, POS processing)
- How they're positioning as both an operator (merchant super app) and infrastructure provider (BaaS platform)
- Why they chose to build rather than use providers, and what that decision cost them in time and go-to-market
- How European fintech companies can use Chari's infrastructure to expand into Morocco and North Africa
- The licensing landscape in Morocco versus passporting in the EU, and expansion opportunities across Francophone Africa