Egyptian VC DisrupTech Ventures has made its second African investment outside of Egypt and its first in Morocco, with a stake in fintech and e-commerce platform Chari acquired in a series A extension round, according to a statement (pdf). The value of the transaction and size of the stake were not disclosed, but the move allows DisrupTech to join the board and is “a meaningful investment that reflects [the VC’s] strong conviction in Chari’s team and business model,” DisrupTech Managing Partner Mohamed Okasha told EnterpriseAM.

(Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Chari? Chari is a B2B e-commerce and fintech platform that aims to serve the fragmented market of neighborhood shops by offering a mobile app that allows them to order fast-moving consumer goods for their inventory and receive no-charge delivery within 24 hours. Beyond e-commerce, Chari offers fintech solutions like working capital microloans, payments, and micro-ins. directly to these retailers.

Chari plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its growth through strategic acquisitions within the payments ecosystem, including a POS management company it is in advanced negotiations with, Chari co-founder Ismael Belkhayat told us.

As new board members, DisrupTech will support Chari to speed up its fintech transformation, particularly in leveraging its vast network of retailers to expand financial inclusion,” Okasha told us. Belkhayat said that Okasha — who was a co-founder of Fawry — brings “deep expertise in payments and financial inclusion, and a proven ‘playbook’ from a market that has many parallels with Morocco.”

“Our ambition is to become the Moroccan equivalent of what Fawry achieved in Egypt,” Belkhayat said, with DisrupTech offering “strategic guidance, best practices and rigorous capabilities in building payments infrastructure, scaling merchant networks, and expanding financial inclusion.”

Morocco is step one, but Chari has the wider Francophone region in Africa in its sights, with an ongoing rollout of its credit-book platform Karny in Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Deepen in Morocco in the short term, while laying the infrastructure and operational foundation for broader regional scaling in parallel” is Chari’s plan as it looks to open up new possibilities by securing the necessary financial licenses to expand its presence in targeted countries.

But DisrupTech’s Chari venture “isn’t a shift away from Egypt, it’s an extension of our regional vision,” Okasaha emphasised. “Egypt remains our core focus, but we also believe in supporting African startups that are solving similar challenges around access to finance,” he explained.

Tags: