Chari Appoints Former Visa Global Head Aurélien Pichon to Board to Scale African Fintech Infrastructure

Moroccan fintech Chari has appointed former Visa executive Aurélien Pichon to its Board of Directors as an independent director. The move signals a significant governance milestone as the company transitions from B2B commerce distribution into a provider of regulated financial infrastructure and agency banking across Francophone Africa.

What was announced

The appointment of Aurélien Pichon as an independent director marks a strategic shift for Casablanca-based Chari as it industrialises its operations. Pichon brings extensive experience from his tenure as Global Head of Client Operations and Services at Visa Inc., where he managed a global organisation of nearly 5,000 staff. His background in the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region—the same geography in which Chari operates—provides the company with high-level institutional perspective. Based in the Middle East, Pichon previously led operations for Visa across the CEMEA region before his elevation to a global role in 2024.

Pichon’s mandate at Chari is focused on three primary pillars: payments expertise at scale, institutional access, and operating rigour. This expertise is intended to support Chari’s growth as its agency banking network expands from thousands to tens of thousands of service points. The company is currently moving beyond its original retailer-distribution model into regulated financial infrastructure. This includes agency banking, which converts neighbourhood shops into cash-in and cash-out points, and fintech-infrastructure-as-a-service. Through its platform at www.baas.ma, Chari is now making its proprietary rails available to a broad range of clients, including banks, telcos, corporates, and other fintech startups. Pichon’s two decades of experience at technology and data firms such as Thomson Reuters and Google are expected to assist Chari in refining these third-party service offerings.

"What Chari is building is the unglamorous, essential layer of financial infrastructure — the famous “last mile” that actually reaches the merchant around the corner. I have spent a significant amount of my career close to the institutions that power small and medium businesses, that operate as B2B end to end, that issue and acquire; Chari is now close to the millions of small businesses that make up the real economy in this region. That combination is where the next decade of payments in Africa will be decided, and I am delighted to be joining the board at this stage."

Aurélien Pichon, former Global Head of Client Operations and Services, Visa Inc.

The companies involved

Chari was founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, quickly establishing itself as a central player in the Moroccan fintech ecosystem. Headquartered in Casablanca, the company initially focused on digitising traditional proximity retailers—the small, independent shops that dominate the retail landscape across Francophone Africa. By providing these merchants with a B2B e-commerce platform, Chari streamlined the supply chain for essential goods. The company is a graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator program, specifically the S21 cohort, which helped propel its growth and visibility among international venture capital firms.

Under the leadership of Belkhayat, who serves as Founder and CEO, and Alj, the Co-Managing Partner, Chari has transitioned from a pure-play commerce platform into a broader fintech entity. It now integrates financial services directly into the retail workflow, offering agency banking and payment infrastructure. This positioning allows Chari to act as a bridge between the cash-heavy "real economy" of neighbourhood shops and the formal financial system. This is a critical role in markets where traditional banking penetration remains low and where proximity retailers serve as the primary point of contact for consumer transactions.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has tracked Chari’s expansion and funding trajectory over several years. In late 2025, we reported that DisrupTech Ventures Backs Chari as It Moves into Fintech and Joins Its Board, Marking Second African Investment Outside Egypt, a move that highlighted the company's growing regional influence. This followed earlier support from major global accelerators; in 2023, Plug and Play doubles down on Moroccan B2B e-commerce startup Chari, reinforcing the startup's position in the B2B e-commerce space. Our coverage has consistently noted Chari's strategic pivot toward financial services as it leverages its merchant network to provide broader fintech solutions, such as the recent developments in the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator ecosystem.

What this means

The appointment of a high-ranking Visa veteran signals that the "last mile" of African payments is moving from a logistical challenge to a sophisticated infrastructure opportunity. By formalising its board with independent, institutional-grade talent, Chari is challenging the notion that fintech in cash-heavy markets must remain informal or peripheral. This move puts pressure on traditional regional banks that have historically struggled to penetrate the proximity retail sector effectively. The industry question now is whether "fintech-infrastructure-as-a-service" can successfully bridge the gap between global payment standards and the hyper-local realities of Francophone African commerce without losing the agility that allowed these startups to scale initially.