Startup Profile

• Founded: 2020

• Core Solution: A video-based selling app that lets businesses promote products through short clips, turning each video into a simple product listing with built-in chat to complete the purchase

• Markets Served: Bahrain

• Funding Rounds:

  • Seed: Round announced at a $3 million valuation

• Growth Outlook: Sellou’s growth plans include expanding across MENA, with priority markets including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE

What does Sellou Do?

Sellou is a video-first social commerce app that enables creators to sell digital products directly through short-form videos. Creators upload a product, record a video that showcases it, and publish the post as a mini storefront with the product embedded in the content.

The purchasing experience stays entirely in-app, allowing customers to chat with creators, ask questions, and complete purchases without being redirected elsewhere. By centering the flow on direct messaging, the platform enables creators to engage buyers and close sales within a single experience.

How was Sellou Built?

Sellou was built around a clear failure point in creator commerce: the conversion drop that happens when audiences have to leave the content to complete a purchase. As founder Salman AlKhalifa puts it, “Sellou started with a simple observation: creators can capture attention in short-form video, but sales often break the moment people have to leave the content. We built Sellou so the post is the storefront—product attached to the video, chat in the same flow, and purchase completed in-app—so creators can turn engagement into revenue without friction.” That insight shaped Sellou’s core design choice: turning each short video into a unit of commerce, where creators can attach digital products directly to content and handle questions in-chat, keeping trust-building and checkout in one uninterrupted flow.

The platform is built for creators selling digital products, such as eBooks, templates, and courses, who want to monetize directly from scroll-stopping content without setup friction or standalone storefronts. This product choice shifts development priorities toward two core requirements: a fast, stable feed and a transaction journey simple enough for creators to repeat daily.

How did Sellou Grow?

Sellou’s growth has been driven primarily by product-led, creator-first design. The app prioritized fast setup and native digital product delivery, aligning with creators selling templates, guides, and other downloadable content. Monetization tools were further formalized through Sellou Pro, a paid tier that expanded direct messaging capabilities and embedded chat more deeply into the selling process, turning conversation into a core product feature rather than a workaround.

Growth has also been supported by ecosystem access and distribution planning. Sellou was selected for the first cohort of Tamkeen’s Riyada Business Accelerator Programme, a six-month initiative powered by Salica Investments, supporting its move toward greater commercial readiness. In parallel, Sellou has outlined plans for deeper WhatsApp and Instagram integration, extending video-first selling into the channels creators already use, alongside plans to expand beyond Bahrain into broader MENA markets.

How Did the Ecosystem Enable Sellou’s Development?

Sellou benefited from ecosystem support designed to turn early traction into a clearer growth plan. Selection into the first cohort of Tamkeen’s Riyada Business Accelerator Programme provided structured mentorship, commercial guidance, and access to investor and partner networks, helping the team test assumptions and refine its route to market.

Operationally, Bahrain served as a fast validation environment. Its compact market and tight feedback loops made it easier to test creator onboarding, video posting behavior, and digital delivery, allowing the team to iterate quickly before applying the same playbook in larger markets.

Sellou’s approach remained deliberately narrow and operational: creator-led commerce works best when the storefront mirrors the content people already watch and when the sale stays within the same conversation channels buyers already use. Operating in Bahrain provided a setting to test and prove this model in practice, while also opening access to funding opportunities. With this foundation in place, Sellou is positioned to scale its business into other markets by replicating the same model at a larger scale.