It's 2025, but business cards are still popular. Simply access to meetings and industry expositions and it's a mountain that's likely to be discarded later. However, with smartphones becoming a repository of information and contacts, people want to try out digital business cards alternatives.
Melbourne startup Blinq offers a digital business card app with QR code widgets, betting that trends will take off when it began as a hobby project in 2017. Today, the company has gold bags. Currently, there are over 2.5 million users. It has individual customers and 500,000 companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
Behind that progress, the startup has raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Touring Capital. Returning backers Blackbird Venture and Square Peg Capital also took part in the round, as did new investors Hubspot Ventures.
“[The Blinq’s QR] It was a simple and personal way to share who you are and worked well among iPhone users. “It wasn't until late 2019 that we caught up with QR scans and adopted children began to grow,” Blinq CEO and founder Jarrod Webb told TechCrunch.
Since then, the startup has been filming the B2C2B route. The app allows users to create several customized digital name cards for their different needs and use them to connect to contacts. The app can also automatically capture and sync details with CRM systems such as HubSpot and Salesforce using QR codes, email signatures, NFC, short links, or video call backgrounds.
Blinq is used by individuals, small and global businesses, with 80% of its customer base in the US, Webb said. The team has expanded from five Melbourne-based employees to 67 in Sydney, Melbourne, New York and San Francisco to support product development and market commitment.
“Every time someone uses Blinq, they introduce it to new people. What's more, the more you're on the platform, the more you see that active users use it more often,” says Webb. “This built-in virality drives organic growth and keeps the cost of customer acquisition low. Business-wise, companies pay per seat. As more employees adopt the product, teams grow organically and grow revenues over time.”
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Blinq competes with several companies offering similar digital business card services, including Mobilo, Popl, Wave, and Wix. Of course, the app should also compete with social networking platforms such as LinkedIn, Landing Pages, and Services such as Linketree.
However, Webb feels that Blinq is good for building relationships and offers users a way to follow up and engage new contacts.
Webb considers digital business cards to be more than just an endpoint. “They are our wedges. When you are a reliable tool at the moment a relationship begins, you earn the right to shape the following: We focus on giving people everything they need to turn their first impressions into true momentum.