The Chari Group companies: who does what, from ordering stock to getting paid

Chari Group brings together nine brands around a single customer: the Moroccan merchant. Chari equips retailers to order their stock, Karny keeps their credit ledger, Lacaisse runs their till, ChariPay lets them collect payments by card or in cash, Charicash and Charitelco bring financial services and top-ups right into the neighbourhood, and Tyara and Hotelo make up the travel division. At the centre sits Chari Money, the group's payment institution, licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib, which holds the licence and carries the infrastructure. This in-depth report presents each company in turn: what it does, who it is for, and how the pieces fit together.

One group, nine brands, one common thread

Founded in Morocco in 2020, a graduate of Y Combinator (S21 batch) and selected by Endeavor, the group has not piled up businesses at random. Each brand answers a specific moment in the life of a neighbourhood shop: filling its shelves, selling, giving its customers credit, collecting payments, paying its bills and serving its neighbours. The group publishes an order of magnitude for its reach: more than 25,000 merchants connected to the Chari platform.

This logic has a practical consequence for the reader: the same shop can use several of the group's brands, each specialised in its own field, and adopt only the ones it needs. The table towards the end of this report sums them up; the details follow, family by family. To see how they connect over the course of a working day, also read from restocking to getting paid.

Commerce: Chari, Karny and Lacaisse

Chari, the ordering app for retailers

Chari is the group's original brand and its operational heart. It is a B2B e-commerce platform for fast-moving consumer goods: grocers and neighbourhood shopkeepers order their stock from the app, and the group advertises free delivery in under 24 hours. The app also comes with built-in financial services — payments, transfers, top-ups and bills. It is through Chari that the other brands meet merchants day after day.

Karny, the credit ledger

Karny, acquired by the group in 2021, takes the shopkeeper's paper tab digital: the merchant records what each customer owes, sends reminders via WhatsApp and backs up the data in the cloud. These histories also help the group build a merchant credit score: informal credit, invisible for so long, becomes data.

Lacaisse, the iPad till

Lacaisse is an iPad cash register for physical points of sale: sales and stock tracking, a consolidated dashboard when a business runs several outlets, integration with payment terminals, and tools for loyalty and bookings. It is aimed mainly at restaurants, retail shops and multi-site chains.

Payments: Chari Money and ChariPay

Chari Money, the group's payment institution

Chari Money is the group's regulated entity: a payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib. It is Chari Money, and not the group or any of its brands, that holds the licence. Chari Money also offers a modular, white-label fintech infrastructure: fintechs, startups and enterprises use it to integrate payment accounts, cards and payment services without building their own infrastructure, with partner access remaining subject to Bank Al-Maghrib's approval. Its website is www.baas.ma.

ChariPay, the payment solution for merchants

ChariPay is a Moroccan payment platform, a PSP operated by Chari Money, a payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib. It lets a business collect payments from its customers by card — Visa, Mastercard and Maroc Pay by default, with 3-D Secure — or in cash at agencies, and receive the money in a payment account opened in its own name, with a RIB. As soon as a payment succeeds, the amount is available in that account instantly. Everything is in dirhams.

When it comes to tools, the merchant has a choice: payment links to share by WhatsApp, email or QR code, with no website and not a single line of code; a hosted checkout for an online shop; subscriptions; and, for technical teams, a documented payment API in Morocco, with a free test mode. The platform is PCI DSS Level 1 certified, a certification renewed every year. Our ChariPay profile covers the essentials.

Neighbourhood services: Charicash and Charitelco

Charicash is a network of neighbourhood financial agents. It enables local shopkeepers — grocers, bookshops, internet cafés — to offer their customers financial services: opening a payment account, depositing and withdrawing cash, paying bills and topping up. Agents are paid on commission and supported by the network. For the group, it is the way to bring financial services to places they did not previously reach.

Charitelco is designed for agents and resellers of phone top-ups: multi-operator top-ups, an agent app, an API for programmatic top-ups, a real-time dashboard and commission management. The merchant gains an additional source of income, and their customers a top-up point close to home.

Travel: Tyara and Hotelo

The travel division is aimed at the general public. Tyara lets travellers compare and book plane tickets paid in dirhams, with at least one stop in Morocco; Hotelo does the same for hotels, in Morocco and abroad. Both run on the same booking engine, book.tyara.ma, and on payment by Moroccan bank card.

The group at a glance

Who holds the licence, and why it matters

In a group with several payment brands, one question keeps coming up: who is licensed? The answer fits in a single sentence. The licence is held by Chari Money, the payment institution that operates ChariPay, licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib under law 103-12. A brand is not licensed as such, and neither is the group: it is the institution that holds the licence, and it is the institution's name that a merchant or a partner can look up in the central bank's official publications.

A second point is just as useful for merchants. ChariPay is not a bank: your payment account is held by Chari Money. It complements your bank; it does not replace it. To understand how this status fits into the wider market, read our analysis of the opening of the card acquiring market in Morocco.

Frequently asked questions

Which companies make up Chari Group?

The group brings together nine brands: Chari (B2B ordering for retailers), Karny (credit ledger), Lacaisse (iPad cash register), ChariPay (payment collection for merchants), Chari Money (payment institution and fintech infrastructure), Charicash (neighbourhood financial agents), Charitelco (mobile top-ups), and Tyara and Hotelo (travel). Each one has its own website and its own profile page on chari.group.

Is ChariPay a subsidiary of Chari Group?

ChariPay is the merchant payment solution operated by Chari Money, the group's payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib. It is therefore a brand of Chari Money rather than a separate company: the contract, the payment account and the licence all sit with Chari Money, which is part of Chari Group.

Is Chari Group licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib?

The payment institution licence is held by Chari Money, one of the group's companies, and not by the group as such or by its brands. To check a provider, it is always the name of the licensed institution that you should look up in Bank Al-Maghrib's official publications, never the name of a commercial brand.

What is the difference between Chari and ChariPay?

Chari is the ordering app for retailers: they buy their stock there and find built-in financial services in the same place. ChariPay lets a business collect payments from its own customers, by card or in cash at agencies, through payment links, a hosted checkout or an API, into a payment account in the business's own name.

How do I contact one of the group's companies?

Each brand has its own website and its own contact channels, all of which can be reached from the “Our brands” page on chari.group. For the group itself — partnerships, press, investors, job applications — the contact page on chari.group will direct you to the right address.