Egypt’s Blnk, a fintech company on a mission to enable financial inclusion through rapid point-of-sale financing, has raised US$12.5 million in equity funding and US$24.6 million in local debt facilities to help scale its consumer finance operations.
Founded in 2021, Blnk is an AI-enabled digital consumer finance platform that is driving financial inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa through innovative technology solutions. The startup empowers merchants with an onboarding and instant credit-underwriting technology to provide financing for their customers at the point of sale.
The Series A equity funding round was led by Algebra Ventures, with participation from SANAD Fund for MSME, Endeavor Catalyst and Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC), the Abu Dhabi-based investor that backed Blnk’s seed funding round.
Debt funding was secured from a number of leading local banks, with notable participation from Suez Canal Bank, Bank Albaraka and National Bank of Egypt, as well as non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) including Corplease, Globalcorp and BM Lease, among others.
Since raising its seed round in November 2022, Blnk has demonstrated exponential growth, onboarding over 1 million customers and surpassing an EGP1 billion (US$19.25 million) loan portfolio. The funding will be used to scale Blnk’s consumer finance operations in Egypt, with a focus on onboarding women and the underbanked, by offering flexible loan sizes for a wider range of products and services.
“We’re proud to have secured the backing of some of the most respected investors in the region and beyond for this round of funding. Their continued belief in our mission is a powerful endorsement of what we’re building at Blnk. This new round of funding positions us to strengthen our profitability – expanding our reach, diversifying our offerings and doubling down on our commitment to unlocking financial access for millions of consumers in Egypt and beyond,” Amr Sultan, CEO and co-founder of Blnk, said.
Karim Hussein, managing partner at Algebra Ventures, said he was excited to back Blnk as it scaled into new verticals and beyond.
“Blnk’s ability to serve the underserved, particularly unbanked and underbanked consumers, while maintaining disciplined credit management, positions them as a category-defining player in Egypt’s consumer finance space,” he said.
