Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is the founder and Executive Director of soleRebels, Africa’s fastest-growing footwear company. She has received honors and accolades for her business acumen, as well as her efforts to shift the discourse on Africa away from poverty to the continent’s entrepreneurial spirit, social capital, and economic potential.
Bethlehem founded soleRebels when she saw skilled artisans in her community in Zenebework living with chronic unemployment. soleRebels allows them to showcase their skills and provides sustainable jobs. Since it opened in 2005, soleRebels has flourished. The company has grown to 300 employees in Ethiopia, and products are distributed to 30 countries worldwide, including through Whole Foods, Urban Outfitters, and Amazon. The company plans to open franchise and company-owned stores in Austria, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK.
Creating well-paying jobs to help her community and her country prosper has always been at the heart of Bethlehem’s entrepreneurial ventures. Through soleRebels, she’s able to employ artisans and natural resources to do just that, as well as promote Ethiopia by creating and selling the traditional recycled tire-sole shoe style, known locally as the seleate or barabasso. By 2016, soleRebels had sold 125,000 pairs of shoes and created 1,200 jobs.
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1980
Born (Ethiopia)
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2005
Founds soleRebels
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2011
Chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum
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2012
Named to Forbes 100 Most Powerful list and designated a "Woman to Watch"
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2017
Founds Garden of Coffee
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2022
Inducted into the Global Business Hall of Fame
Bethlehem launched The Republic of Leather in 2014 because she believed the luxury leather goods industry needed to be reimagined. Besides espousing the same ideals of ecological and economic sustainability as soleRebels, The Republic of Leather is centered on principles of customer choice and maker support, with 5% of the purchase price going back to both the producer and charity. In 2017, Bethlehem founded artisan coffee roaster Garden of Coffee to celebrate Ethiopian coffee heritage and culture by providing the highest-quality hand-roasted coffee in the world. CNN Money called it “Africa’s answer to Starbucks” and said Bethlehem built “Ethiopia’s first global coffee brand by applying her ethical ethos.” In 2022, Garden of Coffee is poised to open over 100 interactive roastery cafes in China.
She is also the founder of perimeter consulting, which provides strategic consulting services, and Made by Ethiopia, a groundbreaking public-private partnership transforming Ethiopia’s footwear and leather export sector. Through Made by Ethiopia, Bethlehem has helped create over 100,000 new job opportunities and more than US$1 billion in export revenue. Her other business ventures include payment and ecommerce platform Giza digital, snack startup NoodFoods, and food brand TeffTastic. In May 2021, Bethlehem launched Selam Bank. With US$116.3 million in capital, Selam Bank aims to create the largest generation of homeowners in Ethiopian history.
In 2011, the World Economic Forum named Bethlehem a Young Global Leader. In 2012, Forbes included her on its 100 Most Powerful list and lauded her as a Woman to Watch, Business Insider listed her among Africa’s Top 5 Female Entrepreneurs, and Arise Magazine named her among 100 Dynamic Women who are shaping modern Africa. Fast Company ranked her on its 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2013, she served as a counsellor at the One Young World Summit, and readers of The Guardian named her one of Africa’s Top Women Achievers. In 2014, Bethlehem was named as one of CNN’s 12 Female Entrepreneurs Who Changed the Way We Do Business.
Bethlehem’s businesses have provided employment and economic prosperity to her community. Through principled entrepreneurship, she works to dispel myths and stereotypes surrounding economics, entrepreneurship, and culture in Ethiopia.
“My driving passions are sharing Ethiopian cultures with the world and finding exciting ways to keep these cultures vibrant and fully relevant. My goal is to build exciting brands around these unique cultures, brands that become ubiquitous and impactful.”
A Global Force for Good
Bethlehem seeks to challenge the traditional narrative about Africa and Ethiopia in particular. She wants to counter the shibboleth that Africa and Africans don’t know how to create their own prosperity. Oprah Winfrey said that “Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is transforming her community and country, one fair-trade shoe at a time.” Bethlehem believes Ethiopians must take control of their own narrative from the people and elites who have a vested interest in positioning Ethiopia as being in need of help. The global success of companies like soleRebels helps to dispel these old narratives and allows Ethiopians to shape their own international image.