With over 2.5 million users across 500,000 companies in 189 countries, Blinq is scaling the platform that powers first impressions - and everything after. The new funding will support global expansion, particularly across North America and Europe, and accelerate Blinq's roadmap to become the connective tissue modern relationships have been missing.
MELBOURNE, Australia, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blinq, the digital business card platform helping professionals connect instantly and stay top of mind, today announced a $25 million Series A funding round led by Touring Capital, with participation from existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital, and new investor HubSpot Ventures. The funding will accelerate Blinq's global growth and power the next generation of tools for professionals kickstarting meaningful relationships.
Blinq started as a digital business card. Today, it leads the way in how over 2.5 million professionals share who they are, save valuable connections, and follow through - whether they're meeting a new potential client, investor, or collaborator. Blinq is on track to surpass 50 million card shares in 2025. This viral growth makes Blinq one of the fastest-growing platforms servicing the first moment of connection between two people and the market leading digital business card solution globally.
Blinq captures the moment most platforms ignore: when two people meet for the first time. Instead of focusing on managing relationships after they've formed, Blinq zeroes in on the first few seconds - when attention is highest, intent is clear, and trust is still being formed.
"Blinq is positioning itself at the very top of the professional relationship funnel," said Priya Saiprasad, co-founder and general partner at Touring Capital. "It's building the system of record for in-person networking and doing it with a product that's delightfully simple, beautifully designed, and already proven to scale."
Blinq users create personalized digital business cards and share them instantly via QR code, email signature, NFC tap, short link, or video call background. Users can create multiple cards tailored to different contexts - work, side hustle and personal use - so they always show up the right way, in the right moment. Each interaction leads to a sleek profile - no app from the other person required - where contacts can connect, capture details automatically (like where and when you met), and sync into CRMs like HubSpot or Salesforce.
"For 700 years, business cards have been paper, passive, and easily lost," said Rick Baker, Partner at Blackbird Ventures. "It wasn't until the pandemic normalized QR codes that this shift became possible. Blinq has seized the moment to bring this centuries-old ritual into the cloud, and in doing so, they're transforming how professionals initiate relationships."
This B2C virality has fueled serious B2B momentum: over 7,500 businesses now use Blinq to manage employee cards at scale, control how their brand shows up, onboard teams faster, and capture contact leads automatically. Blinq cards are already being used by employees at more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.
"This round marks a pivotal step in Blinq's journey to become the relationship layer for modern professionals," said Jarrod Webb, CEO and Founder at Blinq. "We're not just helping people connect - we're helping them act on every relationship that starts. Blinq is becoming the infrastructure for how modern relationships begin and grow."
Where CRMs and social platforms focus on existing contacts, Blinq is building the first system of record for real-world, first-time professional interactions - optimized for speed, context, and follow-through. In a world where your identity is fragmented across various platforms - and new connections are too easy to forget – Blinq gives you one place to show up well in that first interaction. It's a dynamic identity layer that keeps contact details current and helps you manage every version of yourself in every first moment.
As the platform becomes increasingly embedded in business workflows, investors see an opportunity to expand how professionals initiate and manage relationships.
"We are excited about how Blinq transforms fleeting encounters into lasting and valuable professional relationships," said Adam Coccari, Managing Director at HubSpot Ventures. "By capturing the context around a new connection and seamlessly integrating with existing tools like HubSpot, Blinq is building a relationship intelligence layer for millions of individuals and organizations around the world."
About Blinq
Blinq helps professionals connect in a way that's fast, memorable, and built for follow-through. Founded in Australia, Blinq is now the world's top-rated and most popular digital business card platform, with over 2.5 million users across 500,000 companies and offices in Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco and New York. From individuals to global teams, Blinq makes it effortless to start - and scale - better professional relationships. Learn more at https://blinq.me.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Blinq Raises $25M Series A to Reimagine the Start of Every Professional Relationship
Blinq Raises $25M Series A to Reimagine the Start of Every Professional Relationship
The New Home Robot Embodies LG Electronics' Zero Labor Home Vision, Introducing Physical AI to Manage the Time-consuming Tasks of Daily Housework
News Summary:
- LG Electronics will showcase LG CLOiD™, an AI-powered home robot at CES 2026, representing its "Zero Labor Home" vision where intelligent machines handle everyday chores through robotics and connected home integration.
- LG CLOiD is a robot that uses AI and vision-based technology to perform household tasks like cooking and laundry, connecting seamlessly with LG's ThinQ ecosystem to automate home life.
- By unveiling LG CLOiD and its new actuator technology, LG takes a major step toward AI-driven homes, combining robotics, smart appliances, and Physical AI to make housework effortless and time-saving.
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics (LG) today announced LG CLOiD™, an AI-enabled home robot that will be demonstrated publicly for the first time at CES 2026. Designed to perform and coordinate household tasks across connected home appliances, CLOiD is intended to reduce the time and physical effort required for everyday chores. The system represents LG's latest development in AI-based home robotics and smart home platforms, building on the company's Self-Driving AI Home Hub (LG Q9), and the ThinQ ecosystem.
Demonstrating Household Automation in a Real-World Home Setting
At CES 2026, the company will show LG CLOiD operating in diverse home environments. In one scenario, the robot retrieves milk from a refrigerator and places a croissant into an oven to prepare breakfast. After household occupants leave, LG CLOiD initiates laundry cycles and folds and stacks garments after drying. These tasks display LG CLOiD's ability to understand the user's lifestyle and precise appliance control
Hardware Designed for Operation in Living Spaces
LG CLOiD consists of a head unit, torso with two articulated arms and a wheeled base equipped with autonomous navigation. The torso can tilt to adjust its height, enabling the robot to pick up objects from knee level and above.
Each arm has seven degrees of freedom, matching the mobility of a human arm. The shoulder, elbow and wrist allow forward, backward, rotational and lateral motion, while each hand includes five independently actuated fingers for fine manipulation. This configuration allows LG CLOiD to handle a wide range of household objects and operate in kitchens, laundry rooms and living areas.
The wheeled base uses autonomous driving technology derived from LG's experience with robot vacuums and the LG Q9. This form factor was selected for stability, safety and cost-effectiveness, with a low center of gravity that reduces the risk of tipping if a child or pet makes contact.
LG CLOiD's Head as a Mobile AI Home Hub
The head functions as a mobile AI home hub. It is equipped with a chipset – which functions as LG CLOiD's brain – a display, a speaker, cameras, various sensors and voice-based generative AI. Collectively, these elements allow the robot to communicate with humans through spoken language and "facial expressions," learn the living environments and lifestyle patterns of its users and control connected home appliances based on its learnings.
Vision-Based Physical AI: VLM and VLA
At the core of LG CLOiD is the company's Physical AI technology, which combines:
- Vision Language Model (VLM) — converts images and video into structured, language-based understanding
- Vision Language Action (VLA) — translates visual and verbal inputs into physical actions
These models have been trained on tens of thousands of hours of household task data, enabling LG CLOiD to recognize appliances, interpret user intent and execute context-appropriate actions such as opening doors, or transferring objects.
Integration with ThinQ and ThinQ ON
LG CLOiD's capabilities expand significantly through its integration with LG's smart home ecosystem, including the AI Home Platform "ThinQ™" and Hub "ThinQ ON." This seamless connectivity allows LG CLOiD to orchestrate a wider range of services across LG's various appliances.
LG Actuator AXIUM: Robotics Components for Physical AI
Alongside the home robot, LG is introducing LG Actuator AXIUM™, a new brand of robotic actuators for service and robots.
An actuator serves as a robot's joint, integrating a motor that generates rotational force, a drive that controls electrical signals and a reducer that regulates speed and torque. As one of the most critical and cost-intensive components in a robot, actuators are widely regarded as a strategic upstream technology in the emerging era of Physical AI.
LG has accumulated world-class component technology through its market-leading home appliance business. This expertise in component technology is expected to be the foundation for delivering key competitive advantages in actuators, such as lightweight and compact design, high efficiency and high torque. In addition, LG's modular design technology enables customizing, multi-variety production that is necessary for manufacturing advanced robots, which require dozens of types of actuators.
Roadmap Toward AI-Driven Homes
LG plans to continue developing home robots with practical functions and forms for housework. Simultaneously, the company will expand the application of its accumulated robotics technology to home appliances, creating categories such as "Appliance Robots" like robot vacuums, and "Robotized Appliances" like refrigerators with doors that open automatically as a person approaches. The ultimate goal is to create an "AI Home" where housework is entrusted to AI appliances and home robots, allowing people to rest, enjoy themselves and spend their time on more valuable activities.
"The LG CLOiD home robot is designed to naturally engage with and understand the humans it serves, providing an optimized level of household help," said Steve Baek, president of the LG Home Appliance Solution Company. "We will continue our relentless efforts to achieve our Zero Labor Home vision, making housework a thing of the past so that customers can spend more time on the things that really matter."
Visitors to CES 2026 (January 6-9) can experience the tangible benefits of LG CLOiD and the Zero Labor Home through a variety of real-life scenarios at LG's booth (#15004, Las Vegas Convention Center).
About LG Electronics Home Appliance Solution Company
The LG Home Appliance Solution Company (HS) is a global leader in home appliances and AI home solutions. By leveraging industry-leading core technologies, the HS Company is committed to enhancing consumers' quality of life and promoting sustainability. The company develops thoughtfully designed kitchen and living appliance solutions and has recently integrated LG's Robot Business Division to incorporate advanced robot technologies into its home solutions. Together, these products offer enhanced convenience, exceptional performance, efficient operation and sustainable lifestyle solutions. For more news on LG, visit www.LGnewsroom.com.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
LG ELECTRONICS PRESENTS LG CLOiD HOME ROBOT TO DEMONSTRATE "ZERO LABOR HOME" AT CES 2026
