Yacouba Traore is the first to admit that building a startup in Burkina Faso is not for the faint of heart. While the continent’s venture capital spotlight often falls on the “Big Four” (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt), founders in Francophone West Africa are frequently left to build in the dark, bootstrapping their way through infrastructure gaps that would stifle better-funded rivals.

Traore is one of them. A solo technical founder, he launched Bellunic in July 2025. His goal? To bridge the widening gap between Ouagadougou’s fragmented local sellers and an increasingly digital-native urban middle class.

Six months later, the numbers suggest he is onto something. Operating without institutional backing, the mobile-first marketplace has recorded over 10,000 downloads and delivered more than 500 orders.

“We are currently focused on improving logistics and scaling user acquisition. I believe Bellunic represents a compelling story of local innovation,” Traore says.

The “Amazon” alternative

The “Amazon of Africa” narrative — popularised by Jumia over a decade ago — has largely lost its sheen, replaced by a more pragmatic focus on B2B retail and hyper-local logistics. Bellunic fits squarely into this second wave.

The platform targets a specific friction point in the Burkinabé economy: the disconnect between informal merchants and smartphone users. While smartphone penetration in the country hovers between 40–50%, the actual commerce layer remains stubbornly analogue. Consumers face fragmented delivery systems and slow fulfilment times.

Bellunic’s solution is a two-sided marketplace that handles the messy middle. It offers a simple ordering interface for buyers and, crucially, a logistics network for sellers who lack the capacity to deliver beyond their physical stalls.

Traction on a shoestring

For a bootstrapped entity, Bellunic’s unit economics show early promise of sustainability. The startup is generating an average monthly revenue in excess of 1m FCFA (approx. €1,500).

The revenue model is a classic marketplace tripod:

• Transaction Fees: A commission on successful sales.
• Delivery Fees: Direct revenue from the logistics arm.
• Advertising: Premium placement fees for sellers wanting visibility.

With 200 active sellers already onboarded , the platform is growing organically through word-of-mouth and social referrals.

The Logistics Pivot

However, Traore knows that an app alone isn’t a business — delivery is. The primary barrier to scale in Burkina Faso isn’t software; it’s the physical movement of goods.

Currently, Bellunic operates a manual delivery system which Traore admits has “inherent inefficiencies”. To solve this, the startup is currently raising seed round of 100m FCFA (approx. €152k). Half of the funds (50%) are earmarked strictly for delivery infrastructure, including fleet acquisition and courier partnerships.

“Our goal is to digitise commerce in every corner of Burkina Faso, creating thousands of jobs and empowering local entrepreneurs,” Traore says.

Bellunic’s roadmap for the next 24 months is aggressive. Traore projects reaching 50,000 downloads and stabilising volume at 2,000+ monthly orders. He also plans to expand the logistics network to cover three major cities, moving beyond the capital.

For investors, Bellunic represents a wager on the “Francophone opportunity” — a market with less competition than Lagos or Nairobi, but higher operational friction. If Traore can crack the logistics code, he might prove that capital efficiency, not capital abundance, is the key to winning West Africa.