Blnk, an Egyptian fintech that enables consumers to request loans during point-of-sale (PoS) checkouts, has raised $37.1 million in equity and debt financing to expand its lending to consumers with little or no formal access to credit.
The raise includes a $12.5 million Series A equity round led by Algebra Ventures, with participation from SANAD Fund for MSME, Endeavor Catalyst, and existing investor Emirates International Investment Company. Blnk also secured $24.6 million in local currency debt facilities from banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), including National Bank of Egypt, Suez Canal Bank, and Bank Al Baraka Egypt.
Blnk said it will use the new funding to expand its lending products, strengthen its technology, and explore growth beyond its current markets.
The funding comes as consumer lenders race to serve millions of Egyptians who remain outside the formal credit system. As of June 2025, about 16.7 million Egyptian adults had no formal access to credit and other banking services. Consumer lending products like Blnk are aiming to lower the entry barrier for this segment to unlock credit access faster, without requiring a formal banking relationship, proof of income, or a credit history.
Founded in 2021 by Amr Sultan and Tarek Elsheikh, Blnk provides point-of-sale consumer loans through a network of more than 3,000 merchants across Egypt. Customers can finance purchases ranging from electronics and furniture to automotive services, and repay over 6 to 36 months.
“Around 75% of our clients have never borrowed before in the formal market, and we are the first lenders,” Sultan, Blnk’s chief executive officer, told TechCabal in a June 2 virtual interview.
Blnk targets a different segment of the consumer lending market than most of Egypt’s buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) providers. It focuses on instant consumer financing at the point of sale; competitors such as valU, Shahry, Souhoola, and Contact Credit offer short-term installment plans to consumers who already have access to formal credit products. Sultan said the untapped market has great potential for scale.
Egypt’s consumer finance sector reached EGP 61.3 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2024, a 29.6% increase from the previous year, according to the country’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA). About 3.4 million consumers benefited from such financing by year-end, the FRA said, down slightly from 3.7 million at the end of 2023, the regulator said.
Yet, demand for credit in Egypt has expanded, and consumers are accessing more loans than a year ago. In March 2025, consumer credit in Egypt grew 22.7% to EGP 1.51 billion ($29 million), showing the sector’s expansion.
To underwrite its customers, Blnk uses internally developed machine learning models and alternative data to evaluate borrowers who often have little or no credit history. The company said the approach has enabled it to maintain profitability while lending to consumers.
The company said it has onboarded more than one million customers and built a loan portfolio exceeding EGP 1 billion ($21 million). It added that it became profitable in 2025 after growing its revenue by 173% year-on-year.
The startup has also relied heavily on local-currency borrowing to fund its loan book, avoiding exposure to foreign exchange (FX) swings that have hit many businesses during Egypt’s recent devaluations, according to Sultan.
“We’ve never relied on dollar-based venture debt financing,” Sultan said. “We didn’t get hit by FX losses related to our balance sheet at all.”
With the new funding, Blnk aims to deepen its reach into Egypt’s consumer market, using the same data-driven underwriting it credits for its profitability to bring more first-time borrowers into the formal financial system.
