retail-digitization
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Ismael Belkhayat Is Turning the Corner Shop Into a Financial Network
A delayed carton of milk exposed a much larger problem. Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj built Chari around the daily friction of Morocco's neighborhood shops - then followed the transaction trail from stock orders to payments.
Chari
Chari is a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech company that turned the country's corner grocery stores into digital customers. Through one app, the traditional shopkeepers who form the backbone of North African retail can order fast-moving consumer goods and get them delivered in under 24 hours, keep their customer credit ledgers, accept card payments, pay bills, and tap embedded financial services. Founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat and Sophia Alj, Chari was the first Moroccan startup admitted to Y Combinator (S21). In October 2025 it raised a $12M Series A - the largest in Morocco's history - and became the first VC-backed Moroccan company to win a payment institution license from the central bank, the foundation for its Banking-as-a-Service platform.