Moroccan fintech Chari has appointed former Visa executive Aurélien Pichon to its Board of Directors as an independent director, as the company expands beyond B2B commerce into regulated financial infrastructure and agency banking across Francophone Africa.
Pichon joins Chari after a two decade career spanning technology, data and payments, including senior roles at Visa, where he most recently served as Global Head of Client Operations and Services.
Before taking on the global role in 2024, Pichon led Visa’s operations across the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region, giving him experience across the same broader geography where Chari is building its financial services business.
From commerce platform to financial infrastructure
Founded in Casablanca in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, Chari initially focused on helping traditional neighbourhood retailers digitise their procurement through a B2B commerce platform.
The company is now extending that infrastructure into financial services, using the same network of proximity retailers to provide access to formal financial services.
A major part of this expansion is agency banking, where neighbourhood shops can operate as cash in and cash out points for customers.
Chari is also developing a fintech infrastructure as a service business through its BaaS platform, making its proprietary financial rails available to banks, telecommunications companies, corporates and other fintech businesses.
The shift places Chari closer to the underlying infrastructure that supports everyday financial transactions, rather than operating only as a distributor of goods to retailers.
Why Pichon’s appointment matters
Pichon’s experience is expected to support Chari in three areas: payments operations at scale, institutional relationships and operational discipline.
At Visa, he managed a global organisation of nearly 5,000 employees and held leadership responsibilities across the CEMEA region before moving into the global position.
His experience also extends beyond payments, with previous roles at technology and data companies including Thomson Reuters and Google.
For Chari, that experience comes as it looks to expand its agency banking network from thousands of service points to tens of thousands.
The company also expects his background to support the development of its infrastructure services for third party financial institutions and businesses.
Pichon said Chari is building the infrastructure needed to connect formal financial systems with small businesses operating at the last mile.
“What Chari is building is the unglamorous, essential layer of financial infrastructure — the famous ‘last mile’ that actually reaches the merchant around the corner.”
He added that Chari’s proximity to millions of small businesses could play an important role in the next phase of payments development across the region.
Chari’s changing role in African fintech
The appointment comes as Chari continues to reposition itself from a commerce focused fintech into a broader financial infrastructure provider.
Its model is built around proximity retailers, which remain important transaction points in markets where consumers and small businesses continue to rely heavily on cash and neighbourhood stores.
By combining its retailer network with agency banking and infrastructure services, Chari is positioning these businesses as access points to the formal financial system.
The company is a graduate of Y Combinator’s S21 cohort and is led by Belkhayat as Founder and CEO, with Alj serving as Co Managing Partner.
Pichon’s appointment therefore represents more than an addition to Chari’s board. It comes at a point where the company is scaling the infrastructure behind its next phase of growth, with payments, agency banking and financial technology services becoming increasingly central to its business.
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