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From E-Commerce to Morocco's First Licensed BaaS with Ismael Belkhayat from Chari
Three years ago, a Moroccan e-commerce startup approached every bank in the country to request Banking-as-a-Service. None of them understood what APIs were. So the founders went to the central bank, obtained a payment institution license, and built the entire tech stack themselves.
In this episode, I speak with Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and co-founder of Chari, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that has become Morocco's first VC-backed company with a full payment institution license. What started as a B2B marketplace for small retailers has evolved into both a merchant super app and a Banking-as-a-Service platform serving third-party clients across Morocco.
We talk about why Moroccan banks couldn't deliver what they needed in 2022, what it actually takes to build a licensed fintech stack from scratch (core banking, card management, payment gateway, everything), how they're positioning as both an operator and infrastructure provider, why they chose to build in-house rather than use providers like Temenos, and why European fintechs should think about Morocco as their next market.
Guest: Ismael Belkhayat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belkhayat/
About Embedded Finance Review:
I'm Lars Markull, founder of Embedded Finance Review, a newsletter, podcast, and event series covering the European embedded finance ecosystem. If you're exploring embedded payments, banking, or lending for your platform, I offer free intro calls where I share what I know, give honest feedback, and connect you with providers I trust. Book a call at embeddedfinancereview.com.
Our next in-person event is on April 15th in Berlin as an official FIBE side event. Details on our website.
This episode was produced by https://orama.tv/(00:00) Intro(01:48) Host Intro and Welcome(02:53) Chari Story And Pivot(05:57) Merchant Super App Stack(10:34) Airtime Top Ups To Wallets(15:17) Regulator Backing Inclusion(17:21) Why Build In-House(21:17) Renault, not Ferrari Stack(21:44) Balancing Three Models(24:47) Bolt Case Study Rails(30:13) Expansion Advice Wrap Up
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By Lars MarkullThree years ago, a Moroccan e-commerce startup approached every bank in the country to request Banking-as-a-Service. None of them understood what APIs were. So the founders went to the central bank, obtained a payment institution license, and built the entire tech stack themselves.
In this episode, I speak with Ismael Belkhayat, CEO and co-founder of Chari, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that has become Morocco's first VC-backed company with a full payment institution license. What started as a B2B marketplace for small retailers has evolved into both a merchant super app and a Banking-as-a-Service platform serving third-party clients across Morocco.
We talk about why Moroccan banks couldn't deliver what they needed in 2022, what it actually takes to build a licensed fintech stack from scratch (core banking, card management, payment gateway, everything), how they're positioning as both an operator and infrastructure provider, why they chose to build in-house rather than use providers like Temenos, and why European fintechs should think about Morocco as their next market.
Guest: Ismael Belkhayat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belkhayat/
About Embedded Finance Review:
I'm Lars Markull, founder of Embedded Finance Review, a newsletter, podcast, and event series covering the European embedded finance ecosystem. If you're exploring embedded payments, banking, or lending for your platform, I offer free intro calls where I share what I know, give honest feedback, and connect you with providers I trust. Book a call at embeddedfinancereview.com.
Our next in-person event is on April 15th in Berlin as an official FIBE side event. Details on our website.
This episode was produced by https://orama.tv/(00:00) Intro(01:48) Host Intro and Welcome(02:53) Chari Story And Pivot(05:57) Merchant Super App Stack(10:34) Airtime Top Ups To Wallets(15:17) Regulator Backing Inclusion(17:21) Why Build In-House(21:17) Renault, not Ferrari Stack(21:44) Balancing Three Models(24:47) Bolt Case Study Rails(30:13) Expansion Advice Wrap Up