Published by Alvyn Ulrish Shad Savrimuthu
blink by Emtel recently hosted blink Connect, a dedicated merchant engagement event bringing together small and medium-sized enterprise owners from across Mauritius for an afternoon of presentations, practical demonstrations, and open dialogue. The event, held at the Emtel head office, was designed around a single purpose: equipping blink merchants with the tools, knowledge, and partnerships they need to grow their businesses in an increasingly digital economy. Presentations were delivered by blink’s own leadership team about blink & SME connectivity solutions, alongside partner organisations, FinClub and Zaccbox, each addressing a distinct dimension of the SME growth challenge.
Atul Bhatia, Chief FinTech Officer of blink by Emtel
Atul Bhatia opened the session with a wide-ranging presentation on the evolution of digital payments in Mauritius and the role blink has played in shaping that shift. Now four years old, blink has grown from a disruptive newcomer to a nationally recognised payment platform, and Atul was direct about the commercial logic behind pushing merchants toward mobile payment adoption. He drew a clear distinction between Soverign payment platforms like MauCAS compared to Card payments, where a significant portion of every transaction fee exits the country in the form of foreign currency payments, and local mobile payments, which keep money circulating within the Mauritian economy enabling a better cost efficient and financial inclusive economy. Aligning with National vision of Digital Economy and pushing sovereign payments.
He also walked merchants through the practical evolution of blink’s QR payment offering, from static codes where customers enter amounts manually, to fully integrated dynamic QR systems that communicate directly with a merchant’s point of sale. The end-to-end integrated model, already deployed at Super U, eliminates human error entirely. “Whatever is the amount on the POS, they simply click scan,” he said. “If the payment is successful, it goes and closes the sale on the POS. Zero risk, zero error.” He closed by reinforcing that blink’s ambition extends beyond payments, offering merchants access to SMS broadcast campaigns, in-app promotions, and connectivity solutions as part of a broader ecosystem designed to support business growth at every level.
BizConnect
Ivanho Amic presented Emtel’s connectivity offering for SMEs under the BizConnect proposition, focusing on the practical advantages of Emtel’s 5G-powered mobile internet solutions for businesses that need reliable, flexible connectivity. He emphasised that the dedicated SME team at Emtel provides end-to-end support from application through to after-sales, a level of service he described as the key differentiator from competitors. “What I mean by A to Z is for the application, the delivery, and the after sales,” he said.
“This is the main factor that differentiates us from our competitors.” He also highlighted the mobility dimension of the offering, noting that Emtel’s router-based solution allows businesses to stay connected regardless of location, whether operating from a fixed premises, a market stall, or even a catamaran. With extensive Nation wide 5G coverage and a current promotional offer waiving the router cost entirely, Ivanho presented the proposition as both accessible and competitively priced against fibre-based alternatives.
Nidhish Seedheeyan, FinClub
The FinClub presentation addressed one of the most persistent challenges facing SMEs in Mauritius: access to working capital. FinClub operates a peer-to-peer lending platform licensed by the FSC, connecting businesses seeking loans with an investor community that funds those loans in return for an average annual return of 10.72 per cent. The application process is entirely online, requires no collateral, and can deliver a credit decision within three days.
For blink merchants specifically, the partnership unlocks a preferential interest rate that generates meaningful savings over the life of a loan. “As a blink merchant, you have a preferential rate,” Nidhish illustrated with a concrete example that the saving for a five million rupee loan taken through the blink channel amounts to approximately 73,000 rupees compared to a direct application. They also shared the platform’s cumulative impact: 302 million rupees disbursed to date, with nearly 50 per cent directed to SMEs, and a real-world growth story of a tutoring business that scaled from 350 to 1,500 students across three successive loan cycles. “We are trying to assist our evolution in the population”, positioning FinClub as a partner across the full arc of a business’s life, from launch through expansion.
Benita Baichu, Zaccbox
The Zaccbox presentation took a deliberately interactive approach, drawing merchants into a conversation about their current operational realities before introducing the platform’s capabilities. Benita opened by asking the room what they considered most critical to their businesses, and the answers, quick service and reliable payment, framed everything that followed.
Zaccbox is a business management platform built specifically for SMEs, integrating sales, payments via blink, inventory, expenses, invoicing, and reporting into a single system, already connected to blink for payment processing. “What we are giving you is a platform with everything on the board,” Benita said, contrasting this with piecemeal solutions that require separate modules for each function. The system is designed to replace manual, paper-based processes that the majority of the merchants in the room acknowledged still relying on, generating real-time profit and loss statements, VAT reports, and MRA-compliant invoicing automatically as transactions occur.
The presentation also highlighted AI integration capabilities that allow structured business data to feed into forecasting tools, and a mobile EPOS device that enables selling even in offline environments. “If we help SMEs only with 10% improvement in their company, that has a direct impact in the GDP,” Benita noted, framing the platform’s value not merely as an operational convenience but as a contribution to national economic performance.
Marcelo Aleman, CEO of Emtel
Marcelo Aleman, CEO of Emtel, brought the session to a close with a brief but pointed address that captured the spirit of the afternoon. He was unambiguous about the alignment of interests between blink and its merchant base, framing the relationship as one of genuine partnership rather than simply a commercial arrangement. “We have a hidden agenda with you,” he told the room. “We want all of your businesses to start growing really fast.” He acknowledged that no one in the room understands their own business better than they do, and positioned blink’s role as providing the infrastructure and support to help that knowledge translate into growth. “The more you grow, the better we do,” he said, “and we’d like to be your partners.”
Merchant Testimonial
The event also included a testimonial from Salim of Bella Donna, a shoe retail business, who spoke to the tangible operational difference that blink has made at the point of sale. “With blink, we can get a faster payment service that we can propose to clients,” he said. “Faster, easy and a safe way to effect payments.” His experience reflected the broader theme of the afternoon: that for SMEs operating in a competitive, service-driven environment, the quality and speed of the payment experience is inseparable from the quality of the customer experience itself.
Building an Ecosystem Around Merchant Success
blink Connect illustrated a model of merchant engagement that goes well beyond product demonstration. By bringing blink , FinClub, BizConnect, and Zaccbox into the same room as its merchant base, blink positioned itself as the connective tissue of a broader SME support ecosystem, one where payments, financing, connectivity, and business management tools work together rather than in isolation. For the entrepreneurs in attendance, the message was clear: the infrastructure to grow is available, the partners are aligned, and the next step is theirs to take.
