Morocco’s e-commerce startup Chari featured this year on the list of the fastest growing businesses in Africa on a ranking from the British magazine The Financial Times.
In the ranking, Chari claimed 10th place on the continent. Founded in 2018, Chari’s revenues went from $0.2 million in its first year of existence to $1.8 million in 2021, scoring an impressive compound annual growth rate of 92%, the Financial Times reported.
Chari’s growth is also reflected in the number of its employees, with the report showing that the company went from six employees in 2018 to 110 employees in 2021.
The Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce platform launched its first warehouse in Casablanca in January 2020. The startup would later open a second warehouse in Tangier in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The company operates a mobile app that offers grocery stores services that includes free-of-charge product delivery.
The Tangier and Casablanca warehouses were working with over 15,000 grocery stores across Morocco’s North Atlantic coast as of March 2022.
In 2022, the Moroccan startup acquired Karny.ma application, a credit record service used in over 50,000 sales points in Morocco.
In March of last year, Chari announced plans to open seven more warehouses in Marrakech, Agadir, Khouribga, Meknes, Oujda, Errachidia, and Laayoune.
The company also operates its own customer service office in Casablanca, which employs more than a hundred customer service agents.
The company’s ambitious expansion strategy led to the acquisition of Ivorian retail app Diago in June 2022, strengthening its footprint in Francophone Africa’s retail sector.
The acquisition came only 10 months after the startup sealed three acquisition deals including a $22 million deal for Axa Credit.
