Restaurant SaaS startup Blink raised $2.1 M Seed funding for expansion in Middle East
Saudi Arabian restaurant SaaS startup Blink has raised US $2.1 million in a seed round led by Global Founders Capital and 500 Global. One of Blink’s current investors, Orbit Startups, participated in the fundraising as well.
The capital infusion will support Blink’s growth initiatives in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, which encompasses Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
Blink, which was founded in 2020, provides branded platforms and mobile apps to assist restaurants in expanding their direct online ordering channels. The CEO of the startup, Syed Sair Ali, emphasized how, after the pandemic ended, restaurants became unduly reliant on aggregators, which have the power to take significant cuts for each order.
However, Ali told the media that even though a lot of restaurants could relate to these issues, Blink still had trouble persuading certain businesses to adopt substitute fixes.
Restaurants “just have to focus on product” because they are accustomed to working with aggregators, according to Ali. By contrast, utilizing Blink necessitates “a certain effort” from businesses, “whether it be [leveraging] data or managing the marketing part,” he continued.
Blink gets around this by offering feature-rich, easily accessible services. The company’s website lists customer engagement, analytics and intelligence services, and delivery fleet management as part of its online restaurant ordering solutions.
Over the course of the last year, Blink’s partners have completed 4.5 million orders and generated US $500,000 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
With an average cost of US $300 for customer acquisition, the company is concentrating on the Saudi and GCC regions and is making US $169 per month in revenue from each customer.
