Until a few years ago, it was difficult to make payments through the borders almost anywhere in the world. But it is still a big problem in Africa, in which fragmented and disconnected systems, high commissions and poor infrastructures make it difficult for businesses and people to move money quickly and conveniently.
Most people and businesses are still based on networks of obsolete agents or are prepared with mobile wallet integration. But there is a tangible question of cheaper and easier alternatives, in particular in underground regions such as French -speaking Africa.
Ivorian Fintech Cauridor is preparing to solve it and recently collected $ 3.5 million in funding for seeds to continue building its payment tracks that allow traders, banks, telecommunications operators and money transfer companies that they transfer and out of Africa.
Cauridor says that his platform supports mobile wallets, bank transfers and cash pickups through a network of over 25,000 agents in Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. These agents are part of a popular distribution method in the region: they are usually owners of small companies equipped with Point of Sale (POS) devices and allow cash deposits, withdrawals and payments of the invoices.
Cauridor is adopting a hybrid approach to resolve the problem of money transfer, in the same way as other Fintechs in the region combine cash networks with digital infrastructure for local payment needs. However, the approach allowed him to manage the rhymes of storage with key markets such as Ghana and Nigeria and establishing groups at a group level with important actors such as Ria, Moneygram and Western Union, together with partnerships with Orange and MTN.
From the remittance to B2B payments
The founders of Cauridor Oumar Rafiou Barry and Abdoulaye Bah had firsthand the challenges to send money home to Guinea when they study in Canada. They faced slow and expensive refurbishment options in Africa Francophone, a region that temporarily undergred the global remittance sector.
In 2019, this frustration prompted them to start Bnb Cashapp, a remittance platform focused on the consumer for users in Canada to send money to Africa. The app integrated directly with banks, mobile wallets such as MTN and an agent network equipped with a mobile portal to facilitate cash payments.
But as the platform grew, the founders found a wider challenge: the fragmented and inefficient payment infrastructure of Africa. “We soon understood that the rails in Francophone were almost non -existent. So we had to enter and start building payment tracks in the region since payments were fragmented, “said CEO Barry in Techcrunch.
Feeling an opportunity, the team shot in 2022 to build payment tracks for the region. By 2023, the company had combined its consumer remittance activity and the B2B payment infrastructure under the Cauridor brand, just like the operating model of Nala and Rafiki of Tanzania.
The turn has made its fruits: over 90% of the company’s revenues now come from its payment activity. In 2023, Cauridor developed 2 million transactions and recorded a total volume of $ 300 million payments (TPV), which grew to $ 500 million in 2024, said the company.
Competition and future plans
While Barry refers to more important players such as Onafriq and Thunes as the main Cauridor competition, he says that his company was relevant because he built payment tracks in the markets “Nobody was watching”, like Guinea and Liberia.
He noticed that customer service and practical prices have also helped him retain customers. Fintech provides customer service to solve common problems such as mobile money transactions rejected due to incomplete kyca. For example, if a recipient can only receive $ 10 on a payment of $ 700, Cauridor intervenes to help improve his account and ensure that the transaction passes.
Barry thinks that Corridor’s strong local presence gives him an advantage in guaranteeing best forex margins, which he transmits to his customers. He said that this advantage helped the company to attract important customers such as Moneygram, who has gone from competitors for best rates and an improvement in customer assistance.
It is interesting to note that competition in the cross -border payments space does not exclude collaboration. Some of Cauridor’s competitors rely on his infrastructure in specific regions, as collaborated with companies like Thunes for a global scope.
Cauridor uses about 200 people globally and has offices in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The seed round was led by the Panafricana VC company Oui Capital and saw the participation of Rally Cap, Bkr Capital and some angels investors.
With the new money, the company plans to expand in new markets (it has new offices in Mali and Nigeria by opening this year), enrich its teams and increase marketing efforts. Barry told Techcrunch that Cauridor is also preparing for a round series and exploring the blockchain integration to simplify settlements and draw on the growing adoption of Stablecoin in the transfrontier payment space of Africa.
