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Blinq Raises $25M Series A to Reimagine the Start of Every Professional Relationship

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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 6, 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.

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BlueNexus Technologies Unveils AquaX Hub at SIWW 2026 — AI Autonomous Operations Extended to Legacy Water Assets

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June 21, 2026

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SINGAPORE, June 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2026, BlueNexus Technologies unveiled the global debut of AquaX Hub™ — a compact plug-and-play edge device that brings full AI-powered autonomous operation to standalone water equipment and legacy treatment plants. The launch drew sustained engagement from utilities, industrial operators and engineering firms.

The water sector confronts converging pressures: aging infrastructure, a critical shortage of skilled technicians, and relentless operational cost escalation. AquaX Hub™ answers these directly — extending the AI autonomous operation already proven plant-wide by AquaX Robot™ to a single asset, and delivering comparable monitoring and operational management without a control-system overhaul.

“The industry cannot hire its way out of this problem,” said Jack Zhang, CEO of BlueNexus Technologies. “AI autonomous operation is no longer a future concept — the barrier to entry is gone.”

The AquaX Ecosystem

BlueNexus has built the industry’s first fully integrated AI autonomous water operation platform, spanning three complementary pillars:

AquaX Robot™ is the flagship plant-wide AI agent, built on large language models with proprietary vision, acoustic and infrared multimodal sensing. It optimizes treatment processes 24/7 and predicts equipment failures. Live deployments show up to 90% reduction in on-site staffing, a 50% drop in equipment breakdowns, and approximately 35% lower O&M costs.

AquaX Hub™, making its global debut at SIWW 2026, is a lightweight edge terminal extending that capability to any water system. With an independent local processing module, it monitors and inspects equipment through multimodal sensing and runs a self-contained processing loop. The device integrates seamlessly with existing SCADA, cloud and enterprise platforms via standardized APIs.

i-WaterHub™, the company’s standardized modular treatment plant, operated autonomously by AquaX Robot, delivers 2,500 to 40,000 m³/day for municipal and industrial applications.

Market Momentum

SIWW 2026 convened nearly 500 exhibitors from over 65 countries. BlueNexus has identified priority markets for AquaX Hub™ in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. “The conversations this week have already translated into concrete business opportunities and we expect rapid deployment in the coming months.” Zhang confirmed.

About BlueNexus Technologies

BlueNexus Technologies is a Singapore-based water-technology company building intelligent, AI-operated systems for the world’s most water-intensive industries. We design and deliver modular water treatment infrastructure that is smarter to run, faster to deploy, and built to operate autonomously.

Web: www.bluenexus.tech

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SOURCE BlueNexus Technologies

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VIVATECH 2026 CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A RECORD EDITION SURPASSING 200,000 VISITORS

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8 hours ago

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June 20, 2026

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With the presence of Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

PARIS, June 20, 2026 /CNW/ — From June 17 to 20, 2026 at Paris Porte de Versailles, VivaTech celebrated its 10th edition, surpassing the exceptional milestone of 200,000 visitors from 165 nationalities, with more than 15,000 startups present, 1,155 speakers and over 5 billion cumulative impressions on social media. Europe’s largest tech and innovation event has reached a new dimension, consolidating its status as an unmissable global gathering.

Exceptional speakers

VivaTech welcomed the greatest figures in global tech: Jeff Bezos (Amazon & Blue Origin), Dave Limp (Blue Origin), Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Henna Virkkunen (European Commission), Ekaterina Zaharieva (European Commission). Germany, Country of the Year 2026, was represented by a ministerial delegation, while India, AI Country Partner 2026, was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a continuation of the AI Summit in New Delhi.

Innovation and business at the heart of the event

More than 4,500 exhibitors, 61% of whom were international, showcased their latest innovations. Among the standout innovations: the smart contact lens by XPANCEO, the thought-controlled humanoid robot by Unitree x HABS, and the 3D-printed resorbable implants by Lattice Medical. New formats such as the Business Plaza and Investors Office Hours further accelerated business connections.

The VivaTech x Bloomberg Awards

For the first time, VivaTech presented the VivaTech x Bloomberg Awards, recognising the most influential figures in global tech, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Visionary Award), Joe Tsai (Leadership Award) and Yann LeCun (Momentum Award).

Innovation open to all

VivaTech also took over the Champs-Élysées on June 14th for an open-air technology showcase, before opening its doors to the general public on June 20th with astronaut Thomas Pesquet as guest star.

“This 10th edition was not a celebration of the 9 previous years, but the opening of a new decade full of promise.” — Maurice Lévy, Michèle Benbunan & François Bitouzet, VivaTech

See you from June 16 to 19, 2027 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles for VivaTech 2027!

About VivaTech

VivaTech accelerates innovation by connecting startups, tech leaders, major companies, and investors responding to our world’s biggest challenges.  

Each year, over four exciting days in Paris, VivaTech creates Europe’s biggest startup and tech event, exploring the most disruptive topics in tech with world-premiere demos, launches, and conferences in a collaborative ecosystem. This is where business meets innovation. Join us for the eleventh edition of VivaTech 16-19 June 2027.

For more information go to our website at https://vivatech.com/media or follow us on social media @VivaTech.

Contact
press@vivatechnology.com 

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Pope Leo XIV embraces paediatric patients at CNAO in Pavia

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11 hours ago

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June 20, 2026

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PAVIA, Italy, June 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) served as the first stop today during Pope Leo XIV’s pastoral visit to the city of Pavia. His choice to begin his journey at this center reflects a profound commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue between advanced scientific progress and the alleviation of human suffering.

CNAO President Gianluca Vago and General Manager Sandro Rossi received His Holiness, illustrating the center’s distinctive capabilities. CNAO stands out as a unique reality in Italy, remaining one of the very few facilities worldwide capable of delivering hadrontherapy using both protons and carbon ions. The technological core of the facility is its synchrotron, a subatomic particle accelerator that generates ultra-high-precision beams to treat complex, inoperable and radioresistant tumours. This cutting-edge technology allows for the targeted eradication of diseased cells while meticulously preserving surrounding healthy tissues, drastically improving patients’ survival and quality of life.

Furthermore, CNAO is expanding its capabilities as a premier multi-center utilizing new ion species, like Helium, later Oxygen and Neon. Soon, treatments will incorporate the Leo Cancer Care upright positioning and imaging system. The immediate future also includes beginning therapies with a Hitachi dedicated proton accelerator and gantry and a BNCT system for metastatic diseases, equipped with an electrostatic accelerator produced by TAE Life Science. With these new technologies, CNAO will become one of the most technologically advanced center in the world.

To date, over six thousand individuals, including approximately three hundred children and adolescents, have benefited from these life-saving treatments.

During his visit, the Pope engaged with CNAO’s Board of Directors, a collaborative body uniting national universities, clinical institutions, and research centers. He also extended his heartfelt greetings to the two hundred employees of the center. These doctors, physicists, engineers, and researchers tirelessly operate the advanced technologies in the service of oncology patients.

The emotional pinnacle of the day was the Holy Father’s private gathering with a delegation of young children who underwent treatment. The paediatric patients and their families shared a deeply touching moment of closeness, receiving the Pope’s comforting embrace.

“The visit of Pope Leo XIV honours us and represents a moment of extraordinary human value”, stated CNAO President Gianluca Vago. “In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, the Holy Father emphasizes the necessity of a science that constantly safeguards the centrality of the person and directs technology toward the common good. In a time marked by global tensions, CNAO testifies daily how the incredible power of the atom can be used not to destroy, but to heal. The particle beams we utilize against disease are, symbolically, Rays of Hope, sharing and supporting the IAEA project bearing this name. The embrace the Holy Father reserved for our children reminds us that scientific research finds its most authentic purpose when it encounters listening, compassion, and hope”.

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