Guinea-based payments infrastructure startup Cauridor has appointed former Flutterwave executive Awa Koné as its new Chief Operating Officer, marking a significant leadership move as the company accelerates its expansion across African markets.
Koné, who previously served as Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave, brings more than five years of experience scaling one of Africa’s most prominent fintech firms. During her tenure, she helped expand Flutterwave’s operational footprint across multiple regions, including Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia—experience that now positions her to oversee Cauridor’s growing multi-country infrastructure. Prior to that, she worked at Swiss Re, where she served as General Manager and led the insurer’s greenfield expansion into Côte d’Ivoire.
Her appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Cauridor as the company transitions from early-stage infrastructure development into broader market expansion. Operating across 36 countries, the startup is building a cross-border payments network that connects mobile money operators, banks, and international money transfer services through a unified application programming interface (API).
Founded in 2022 in Guinea by Oumar Barry and Abdoulaye Bah, Cauridor positions itself as the “middle layer” of African payments infrastructure—aimed at simplifying transfers between fragmented financial systems across the continent.
Koné said she was motivated by the opportunity to help scale infrastructure that improves financial connectivity across Africa, describing cross-border payments as a space with significant untapped potential. She noted that her background in operations, risk management, treasury, and payments systems would be central to her new role as the company expands its reach.
The company currently serves a broad range of clients, including international money transfer operators, banks, fintech companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and payroll providers. Its operational footprint spans countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and The Gambia, with plans underway to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Cauridor says its model combines traditional business-to-business infrastructure with a consumer-facing distribution layer. While its API connects financial institutions and fintech platforms, its B2C arm—known as BnB—operates an agent network across West and Central Africa, enabling cash pickup and last-mile payment services. The company argues that this hybrid approach gives it an edge over competitors such as Onafriq, TerraPay, Thunes, and Nala.
According to the company, it has raised approximately $13 million since inception to support its infrastructure build-out and regional expansion strategy.
Leadership at Cauridor says Koné’s arrival strengthens the company at a critical stage. As it deepens operations in existing markets and prepares for entry into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the focus is increasingly on scaling reliability, improving settlement efficiency, and expanding access to cross-border financial services in underserved regions.
With seasoned operational leadership now in place, the startup is positioning itself for its next phase of growth in Africa’s rapidly evolving payments landscape.