Moroccan B2B startup Chari acquires Axa Credit for $22 million

Chari, a Moroccan B2B ecommerce platform, announced that it has acquired Axa Credit, the credit branch of Axa Assurance Maroc, for $22 million.

Founded by Sophia Alj and Ismael Belkhayat in 2020, Chari is an e-commerce app helping small retailers in French Speaking Africa, particularly Morocco and Tunisia, procure inventory for their stores and get delivered for free while benefiting from payment facilities.

The startup recently secured a bridge round at $100 million valuation to offer Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) service with its current customers.

According to CEO Ismael Belkhayat, Axa’s primary business is Insurance and credit is a secondary business. Axa was pulling out its credit business from Morocco and saw Chari fit to take over. “They decided to give the deal to Chari because I think they believe we are the ones able to do financial inclusion,” he said.

Chari figures the acquisition of Axa Credit will offer the company the credit license needed to start offering loans to its FMCG B2B clients (which it currently does), who can then lend money to their consumer clients.

Axa’s divestment from the credit business is in alignment with its global restructuring. According to Meryem Chami, the general manager of Axa Morocco, “We are thrilled to announce a cross-selling partnership between Axa Insurance Morocco and Chari. This partnership will allow Axa Insurance to keep growing on the Moroccan market and play a central role in financial inclusion.”

Belkhayat said Chari was able to carry out the acquisition from some portion of its seed financing, a leveraged buyout (local debt from banks) and negative working capital from its transaction with FMCG manufacturers (about $5 million). The company is also gearing up to raise a large Series A round.