Cauridor, a Guinea-based cross-border payment infrastructure company, has appointed Awa Koné, former Global Head of Operations at Flutterwave, as its Chief Operating Officer. The move signals a strategic push to scale operations as the company expands across African markets.
Koné brings more than five years of experience at Flutterwave, where she helped build and scale payment infrastructure across Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Prior to that, she served as General Manager at Swiss Re, leading a greenfield expansion into Côte d’Ivoire. Her appointment comes as Cauridor transitions from its early infrastructure-building phase into active market expansion.
Founded in Guinea in 2022 by Oumar Barry and Abdoulaye Bah, Cauridor positions itself as the connective layer for cross-border payments. The company integrates mobile money providers, banks, and international money transfer operators through an Application Programming Interface (API) to enable seamless transactions across borders.
The company currently operates in 36 African countries, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and the Gambia. It is now preparing to enter the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Cauridor’s infrastructure is designed for international money transfer operators, mobile network operators, banks, fintechs, SMEs, and payroll service providers.
“We are building something significant at Cauridor, and having her lead our operations puts us in a strong position for what comes next,” said Barry.
Cauridor differentiates itself from other infrastructure-only players through a hybrid model. It offers B2B rails for fintechs, banks, and money transfer operators, while also operating a B2C agent network under its consumer brand, BnB. This approach gives the company last-mile reach across West and Central Africa, strengthening the reliability of its B2B infrastructure.
“Most infrastructure players are purely B2B,” Barry explained. “Through our B2C brand, BnB, we also operate an extensive agent network across West and Central Africa. That gives us last-mile reach that strengthens the reliability of our B2B infrastructure.”
The appointment follows Cauridor’s $3.5 million seed round last year, which was aimed at strengthening its infrastructure across Francophone Africa. With Koné now leading operations, the company said its focus will be on deepening its presence in existing markets while preparing for DRC entry.
“Cross-border payments in Africa are fragmented, expensive, and inaccessible to the people who need them most,” said Barry. “We bridge that gap, enabling customers to send from one mobile wallet across borders, into other wallets, or to cash pickup points in receiving markets.”
Koné described the role as an opportunity to apply her experience across operations, risk, treasury, and cross-border payments to a company still shaping its infrastructure. “The opportunity to help build infrastructure that simplifies cross-border payments and unlocks real economic opportunities across the African continent is incredibly compelling,” she said.
