Blackbird and Square Peg co-invest as Blinq marks rapid growth in users and businesses

MELBOURNE, 17 MAY 2022 — Blinq, a rapidly-growing startup based in Melbourne, has raised AUD$5 million from notable investors Blackbird and Square Peg Capital to revolutionise how professionals share their details and manage ongoing relationships.

“Blinq is one of the fastest-growing platforms we’ve seen in recent years. Just as Twitter and Airbnb took off at events such as South by Southwest, it’s exciting to see Blinq do the same this year,” said Rick Baker, Partner at Blackbird. “The last time Square Peg and Blackbird co-invested in a seed-stage startup, the result was Canva. With many social networks leading to fragmentation of identity, Blinq is creating a way to help people manage, control and share their identities in one place. We see such an exciting opportunity with what Blinq is building.”

Blinq lets you share a snapshot of your professional identity, make great first impressions and manage your ongoing relationships. Blinq replaces business cards and static contact apps with a live profile that can be shared with anyone via QR code, NFC card, short link, email signature or even video call background. With Blinq, you can quickly create multiple profiles to control which information you share, and with whom. Any information you share can be kept up to date so there is no need to inform your contacts when you change numbers, emails or other information.

Early Uber Eats operator and software engineer Jarrod Webb developed Blinq in 2017, observing frustration with paper business cards and the lack of a truly transformative digital option for exchanging contact details. What started as a hobby grew into a substantial opportunity last year as QR code adoption unlocked a reliable way for professionals to quickly share their identity with anyone. In January 2021, Webb left Uber Eats to catch this tailwind and accelerate growth in users and businesses in the post-COVID era. 

“The paper business card has been outdated for decades, but we have never had something that could truly replace it. With QR codes becoming more commonplace during the pandemic, it’s now easier than ever to quickly share your information, manage it from anywhere and keep it up to date,” Webb said. 

Blinq integrates with CRM platforms and directories like Salesforce, HubSpot and Azure AD to provide companies with a single source of truth on contact information, and rich context to help keep their pipeline information up to date and ready for follow-ups.

“The first interaction is the bedrock of a business relationship and with it brings future opportunities. People are using Blinq to enhance that moment of connection,” Webb said.

James Tynan, Principal at Square Peg, said: "The contacts app is essentially the same as it was before the advent of the iPhone. It's time for a connected identity layer that never goes out of date, and we're excited to work with a founder like Jarrod who has the vision and ability to make that future happen."

With the new funding from Blackbird and Square Peg, Blinq is expanding the product team to create new features that help people connect and build successful professional relationships.

About Blinq

Blinq makes it easy for anyone to share their professional identity instantly online or in person, via a digital business card, email signature or video call background. With Blinq, you can quickly create multiple profiles to control which information you share, and with whom. Any information you share can be kept up to date so there is no need to inform your contacts when you change numbers, emails or other information.

Blinq is based in Australia and backed by notable investors Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital.