Building a Safer Online Marketplace
for Ethiopia
Bilu Store is an Ethiopian mobile marketplace created to make local online buying and selling safer, simpler, and more trusted.
“Every Ethiopian deserves to buy and sell online without fear.”
— Bilu Store founding mission, 2024
The story behind Bilu Store
In 2023, our founders noticed a pattern: Ethiopia's online marketplace scene was booming in activity but collapsing in trust. Buyers were losing money to undelivered goods. Sellers were waiting weeks for payment, or getting nothing at all.
The problem wasn't buyers or sellers — it was infrastructure. There was no neutral party holding funds, no identity layer, no dispute resolution. Online trading required blind trust between strangers.
Bilu Store is our answer: a C2C marketplace built escrow-first. We hold every payment until the buyer confirms satisfaction. We verify every seller through Fayda, Ethiopia's national digital ID. We resolve every dispute with a human team — in Amharic and English.
The name “Bilu” (bili) means “say it” in Amharic — because trust starts with communication, and every deal between real people deserves a voice.
Our values
Trust over growth
We will never compromise user safety for faster expansion. Every product decision is filtered through: "Does this make the platform safer?"
Ethiopia-first
We build for Ethiopian users on Ethiopian devices with Ethiopian connectivity. Amharic is a first-class language. ETB is our native currency.
Radical transparency
Our Trust Center shows live escrow data, dispute rates, and safety statistics. We don't hide our numbers — we're proud of them.
Human at the core
Every dispute is resolved by a real person. Every report is reviewed by a human. Automation supports our team — it doesn't replace them.
Meet the team
Ethiopians building for Ethiopians