Egyptian fintech, Blnk, secures $32m in debt and equity. 2 other stories and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. Egyptian fintech startup, Blnk, secures $32m in debt and equity

BInk, an Egyptian fintech startup, has secured $32 million, money split across different stages and funding types.

Amr Sultan, co-founder, and CEO of BInk confirmed the funding in a statement on Thursday.

According to Sultan, the funding comprises of a $12.5 million pre-seed, seed equity round, $11.2 million debt financing and another $8.3 million securitized bond issuance.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the seed round was led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company [EIIC], Sawari Ventures, and other investors.

Commenting on the new financing, Sultan stated:

“We’re heavily focused on financial inclusion, especially on how to underwrite people who don’t have a credit history.”

Sultan, who started the company with Tarek Elsheikh, said that BInk is poised at providing instant consumer credit in Egypt.

Tech Trivia: Classes are supported by what type of programming language?
A. Machine language
B. Assembly language
C. Procedural programming language
D. Object-oriented programming language
Answer: see end of post

2. African healthtech, Contro, secures $5.6 million pre-seed

A South African healthtech startup, Contro, has announced closing an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of R10.1 million (~$5.6 million).

Read also:Nigerian fintech startup, Kuda, launches digital banking in UK. 2 other stories and a trivia

Alex Schmid, Contro’s founder, disclosed this in a media release seen by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday.

The investment, according to Alex, was raised from VCs, including Plug & Play, iCubed Capital, WZ Capital, the Jozi Angels Network, and other Angels.

Contro also received grant funding from the i3 fund backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Launched in June 2021, the company claims it is focused on sexual health and confidence treatment.

“Our largest achievement to date has been creating an accessible and affordable service for all South Africans. The platform is utilized in areas such as Soweto, Khayelitsha, and Alexandra as well as rural areas,” Schmid stated.

He further stated that the company was looking to build on the momentum they already have in current markets and beyond.

3. KEENON Robotics Partners SGP to support Canadian aging population

Canadian intelligent service robotic company, KEENON, has officially announced a new partnership with SGP Purchasing Partner Network (SGP).

May Lui, Director of Procurement at SGP, confirmed the strategic partnership in a media release on Thursday.

Founded in 2010, KEENON Robotics had earlier completed a $200M Series D financing led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 (SVF2).

“Our service robots are saving more time for the staff members at senior homes so that they can focus on more complex and important tasks, the joined force of service robots and human staff is improving the level of service via an affordable approach,” commented Robert Madison.

Further commenting on the strategic partnership, Lui said:

“KEENON has established itself in Canada with a winning combination of top sales, support, and service, and as robotic services are leading the trends, its application scenarios in the senior care sector will surely grow.

“We look forward to partnering with KEENON and together achieving operation excellence to suitably meet the needs of our residents.”

Trivia Answer: OOP

Stands for “Object-Oriented Programming.” OOP (not Oops!) refers to a programming methodology based on objects, instead of just functions and procedures. These objects are organized into classes, which allow individual objects to be grouped.

By Kayode Hamsat

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