Until a few years ago, it was once difficult to make payments beyond borders almost everywhere in the world. But it is still a major problem in Africa, where fragmented, detached systems, high tariffs and poor infrastructure make it difficult for businesses and individuals to move forward quickly and easily.
Most people and businesses still rely on outdated agents’ networks or accumulate with mobile portfolio integration. But there is a tangible requirement for cheaper and lighter alternatives, especially in undeserved regions like Francophone Africa.
Ivorian Fintech Cauridor is set to solve it, and recently collected $ 3.5 million in seed funds to continue building its payments that allow traders, banks, telecom operators and money transfer companies moving funds inside and outside Africa.
Cauridor says its platform supports mobile wallets, bank transfers and cash receipts through a network of more than 25,000 agents across Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. These agents are part of a method of popular distribution in the regions-are usually owners of small businesses equipped with sales dots (POS) and enable cash deposits, withdrawals and bill payments.
Cauridor is adopting a hybrid approach to solving the problem of money transfer – in the same way other fintechs in the region combine money networks with digital infrastructure for the needs of local payments. However, the approach has enabled her to operate shipments corridors to key markets such as Ghana and Nigeria, and create group level contracts with big players such as RIA, MoneyGram and Western Union, along with partnerships with Orange and MTN.
By shipment to B2B payments
The founders of the Cauridor Oumar Rafiou Barry and Abdoulaye Bah experienced the challenges of sending money home in Guinea in the first hand when studying in Canada. They faced slow, expensive consignment options in Francophone Africa, a long -time region from the global deliveries industry.
In 2019, this disappointment pushed them to start BNB CasApp, a consumer -centered shipments platform for users in Canada to send money to Africa. The app was directly integrated with banks, mobile wallets like MTN, and a network of agents equipped with a mobile portal to facilitate money payments.
But as the platform grew, the founders encountered a bigger challenge: fragmented and inefficient infrastructure of African payments. “We realized early that the rails in the Francophone Africa were almost non-existent. So we had to get inside and start building payments in the region as payments there were fragmented,” Ceo Barry told TechCrunch.
Feeling an opportunity, the team headed in 2022 to build payment rails for the region. By 2023, the company had joined its consumer shipments business and B2B payment infrastructure under the Cauridor brand, just like Nala and Tanzania and Rafiki Operational Model.
The change was paid: over 90% of the company’s revenue now comes from its payment business. In 2023, Cauridor processed 2 million transactions and recorded the total volume of payments (TPVs) of $ 300 million, which increased to $ 500 million in 2024, the company said.
Competition and future plans
While Barry refers to the most prominent players such as Onafriq and Thunes as Cauridor’s main competition, he says his company has remained important because he built payment in the markets “No one was looking”, like Guinea and Liberia.
He noted that the service and the prices of the hand clients have also helped him maintain customers. Fintech provides customer service to solve ordinary issues such as rejected mobile money transactions due to incomplete key. For example, if a receiver can only receive $ 10 from a $ 700 payment, Cauridor’s steps to help improve their account and ensure that the transaction passes.
Barry thinks that Cauridor’s strong local presence gives it an advantage in providing the best forex boundaries, which it crosses to its customers. He said the advantage has helped the company attract large customers like MoneyGram, who switched from competitors for better rates and improved customer support.
Interestingly, competition in the cross -border payment space does not exclude cooperation. Some of the Cauridor competitors rely on its infrastructure in specific regions, as well as partners with companies like Thunes for a global reach.
Cauridor employs about 200 people globally and has offices on the ivory coast, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The seed of the seed was led by the Pan-African firm VC oui Capital, and without participation by Rally CAP, BKR Capital and some angel investors.
With fresh money, the company plans to expand to new markets (it has new offices in the mountain and Nigeria that open this year), its teams of teams and increase marketing efforts. Barry told Techcrunch that Cauridor is preparing for a round A series and exploring blockchain’s integration to simplify settlements and get into the growing adoption of stablecoins in the African cross -border payment space.
