Ismael Belkhayat’s Chari.ma joins Xavier Niel’s Founders Program

Orange Ventures is injecting €200,000 into Chari.ma. The company, in which H&S Investment holds a minority stake, has won the Middle East & Africa Seed Challenge organised by Orange Ventures, which is run by CEO Jérôme Berger. The telecoms subsidiary plans to roll-out Chari.ma in its operating countries throughout francophone Africa. Among the synergies identified is the provision of mobile phone top-ups at local grocery stores, and the introduction of financial services offered by Orange Money. Orange Ventures enlisted Parisian law firm Constellation to handle the legal aspects of the deal and to conduct the preliminary due diligence.