News

Egyptian Digital Lending Platform Blnk Raises $32 Million

Blnk, an Egyptian fintech startup that enables access to instant consumer credit, has raised millions in equity and debt funding.

Published

4 years ago

November 10, 2022

Nour Nasir

Blnk

Launched in October 2021 by Amr Sultan and Tarek Elsheikh, Blnk is an Egypt-based digital lending platform that “empowers merchants of all sizes to instantly underwrite and finance their customer’s purchases at the point of sale”. In a recent round of funding, the company managed to raise $23.7 million in equity and a further $8.3 million in securitized bond issuance. The funding will help support the ongoing development of the company’s AI-powered lending platform and aid with future expansion efforts.

For those unfamiliar with Blnk, the company offers credit for a wide range of products and services, with only a national ID required for application and decisions made in as little as 3 minutes. So far, Blnk has handed out over $20 million in loans, with installments ranging from 6 to 36 months.

“Our mission is to make it easier for more Egyptians to purchase the products and services they desire by offering inclusive and convenient consumer credit at the point of sale. We are delighted to have the backing of a great cohort of investors early in our journey. With their support, we believe we can drive financial inclusion in Egypt, as well as the wider Middle East and North Africa region,” says Amr Sultan, Co-founder, and CEO of Blnk.

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According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Egypt is soon expected to become the second-largest economy in the MENA region by the end of this year. However, with only 4% of Egyptians having credit cards, consumers and businesses are unable to take full advantage of economic opportunities, with many finding it difficult to realize their full potential.

By providing inclusive access to financing for consumers across Egypt, Blnk is helping to drive growth and development in the Egyptian economy that would otherwise be difficult.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

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Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.