Awa Koné, a former Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave, has been named Chief Operating Officer of Cauridor, a cross-border payment infrastructure startup based in Guinea.
She worked with Flutterwave for more than five years, contributing to the development and expansion of the company’s infrastructure in a number of areas, including Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Prior to that, she oversaw a greenfield development into Côte d’Ivoire while working as general manager for Swiss Re, a Swiss reinsurance company.
Koné’s hiring coincides with Cauridor expanding into new markets and moving past its initial infrastructure-building phase. The organisation is hiring an executive with experience managing cross-border payment operations across 36 countries.
Cauridor, which was established in Guinea in 2022 by Oumar Barry and Abdoulaye Bah, bills itself as the infrastructure that facilitates international payments. To facilitate these transactions, it incorporates banks, mobile money providers and foreign money transfer companies via an Application Programming Interface (API).
”I am thrilled to join Cauridor at such a crucial moment. The opportunity to help build infrastructure that simplifies cross-border payments and unlocks real economic opportunities across the African continent is incredibly compelling,” she stated.
She characterised the position as a chance to use her background in operations, risk, treasury, and international payments for a business that is still developing its infrastructure.
The main users of Cauridor include mobile network operators, banks, fintechs, SMEs, international money transfer companies and payroll service providers. It presently operates in 36 African nations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and the Gambia.
”Cross-border transfers in Africa are costly, dispersed and unavailable to those who most need them. Customers can send money from one mobile wallet across borders, into other wallets, or to cash pickup locations in receiving markets thanks to our bridge,” said Barry.
By using a hybrid approach that combines a B2C agent network under its consumer brand, BnB, with B2B rails for fintechs, banks and money transfer companies, Cauridor sets itself apart from infrastructure-only competitors. It faces competition from companies like Onafriq, TerraPay, Thunes and Nala.
According to Barry, the majority of infrastructure players are only B2B. We also run a vast agent network in West and Central Africa under our B2C brand, BnB. This increases the dependability of our B2B infrastructure by providing us with last-mile reach.
Since its founding, Cauridor claimed to have raised $13 million. Now that Koné is in charge of operations, the company stated that it will concentrate on strengthening its position in current markets while getting ready to enter the DRC.
”Having her oversee our operations puts us in a strong position for what comes next, and we are building something significant at Cauridor,” Barry stated.
