Mobile and Web Development Company.
We are a web and mobile development company, based in Dubai, that has been turning incredible ideas into innovative software for smart companies across the globe since 2015.
With a team of over 50 highly-skilled technology and admin professionals, we work directly with your team to produce world-class apps from conception to launch, allowing you to focus on expanding your business ventures. As a company run by developers for developers, we firmly believe that passion and a keen interest in emerging technologies make the difference between an app and a profitable app.
We stay at the forefront of new technologies and we’re always studying the next big thing. This way, we can stay flexible and utilize the technologies that best adapt to your project. We are proud to have worked with recognizable clients from 13+ different countries.
Check out our portfolio to see our past projects and read feedback from clients we’ve helped grow, expand, and thrive.
2 Languages
- English
- Arabic
5 Timezones
- EET
- MET
- EST
- PST
- ACT

headquarters
other locations
Focus
Portfolio
Jumia, Careem, Khatabook, Cassbana, Sharwa, Sadeem, Flexday

Khatabook
For years, India’s shopkeepers have spent hours recording their sales and expenses on physical ledgers, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. But Khatabook saves time and effort by bringing all of a business’ bookkeeping online. It supports digital payments and keeps accurate logs of incoming and outgoing money, no bahi khatas necessary. KhataBook doesn’t just allow you to manage your transactions. It has a wealth of other features, including customer messaging, SMS reminders, report generation, and automatic backups. Plus, it supports 11 different languages, so it’s accessible for a variety of businesses.
Our team partnered with Khatabook to revamp their Android app and building an iOS app from the ground up. In doing so, we helped them expand their scope, bringing digital bookkeeping services to millions of business owners around the world.
Outcome:
Together with the Khatabook team, we developed safe, multi-functional, elegant apps for both Android and iOS. To date, it’s been downloaded more than 10,000,000 times and it was recently a trending business app in India. On top of that, they processed more than $5 billion in transactions solely during November 2019. And with more than 60 million small-to-medium businesses in India (and millions more beyond that) they’re only going to keep growing.

Careem Bus
We built robust web and mobile apps that handle real-time bus booking and tracking, then we integrated these apps smoothly with Careem already-powerful platform. With so many bus trips every day, it was essential to build a dashboard that could accurately track and provide advanced analytics for an entire bus fleet, and we delivered. Our apps encompass the entire user experience, starting with the booking process and ending with intuitive payment integration.

flexday
Working from home sounds ideal but can have its fair share of challenges: the couch calling your name, the TV waiting to be watched, your refrigerator full of tempting snacks. Not to mention, there’s no one else around to collaborate. That’s where Flexday comes in. With Flexday, freelancers and remote workers can discover workspaces around Toronto, and enjoy its facilities by paying a daily or monthly fee.
Flexday digital nomads’ community is made of 8000 members and more than 50 workspaces in Toronto.
Outcome
Flexday approached Bink22 to optimize their existing iOS and Android apps. We delivered simple, yet dynamic new functionalities for both versions of the app.
Our team was responsible for introducing React Native technology to speed up delivery for the first couple of sprints, and after that, Blink22 expertise was taken into consideration and the consensus was that the apps should be kept in native, for good. Moving forward, Blink22’s team revamped the overall design, payments module, and map UI.

Involvio
Student involvement has a variety of aspects, and we built features for all of them. We made event organization easy with a Google Calendar-like component and streamlined academic communication with student-professor chat functions. To take it a step further, we implemented location-based events and system notifications, so students will always be aware of the most current happenings.

WishYoo
We built out the entire WishYoo mobile app to communicate with existing API, allowing for more fluent functionality and integration. In doing so, we empower users to send their custom messages with ease.

3ayez
We worked closely with the 3ayez team to enrich their mobile apps and back-end with additional features, making online shopping even easier for users and stores alike. This included integration with Legacy systems to simplify the process for stores, paving the way for more retailers to join. And for user questions, we supported a dashboard call center to assist shoppers and facilitate an enjoyable buying experience. Our services helped foster a user-friendly, gratifying shopping experience from start to finish, so users will come back to 3ayez again and again.

Carpool Club
We built apps from the ground up for drivers and passengers on both the iOS and Android platforms. Carpool Club needed a way to connect users in real-time, so each of the four apps function seamlessly together. To make these driver-passenger connections happen, our apps use location services to group users who have similar commutes and employ a token-based currency that accepts real payments. Commuters have options to create their perfect carpool by applying search filters and rating each other at the end of the ride.

PlusPlus Alexa Bot
Picture this: the office is quiet except for the click-clack of keyboards and a couple ringing phones. Then, out loud: “++ to [name] for picking up lunch,” or “++ to the marketing team for crushing that email campaign.” Suddenly, laughter all around.
++ lifts spirits and brings a team closer together. Lighthearted and fun, it allows team members to react positively or negatively to their colleagues' actions out loud, then quantifies those comments into user scores. It’s a simple way to vitalize your office and make your team members feel valued.
Does your office collaborate through Slack? There’s a bot for that too, so you can get the same ++ experience through the app you use most often.

DatamineEmail
Dataminemail’s objective is to streamline business operations, so we built a smart, flexible Slack bot that works with each company’s unique needs and goals. We achieved improved server performance that can receive 30% more concurrent requests, and we utilized user feedback to improve functionality and ease of use. In collaboration with the client’s team, we developed an elegant email metrics solution that improves both efficiency and productivity.

Promino
Promino’s location-specific forms are detailed and intricate, so we had to deal with a complex logic on how to build and submit them. We were faced with the task of creating a system that was robust enough to yield significant data but flexible enough to meet a variety of user needs. Post-survey functionality was equally important, so we needed to develop an advanced statistics dashboard, an accessible interface that could serve as a comprehensive overview for all of a user’s surveys and projects.
Category:
- Administration interface
- statistics

Project with Hybrid MMA & Fitness
Working collaboratively with the Hybrid team, we created an easy-to-use app that transformed trainers’ relationships with their clients, added genuine value for Hybrid’s customers, and made working together more efficient for all parties. Through the new app, trainers can onboard and evaluate new clients, then assign them appropriate training, nutrition, and supplement plans where relevant. The app also allows them to set their clients' goals and monitor their progress during training sessions, while clients can log their meals and any workouts they undertake by themselves. With the app’s high-end design and sleek features, motivation never looked so good.
Reviews
the project
iOS App Dev for Wildlife Management Product Manufacturer
"The most impressive thing has been their competence in app development."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
We at Nordic Gamekeeper work with smart devices for wildlife management. Today we work with feeding machines and cameras that are placed in rural areas to monitor and "steer" animals. I'm the CTO at this company and I have 18 years in IT as a developer/architect.
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22, and what were your goals?
We currently don't have any app developers inhouse, so we where looking for expert consultants. We interviewed many but fell for Blink22 as they, based on my experience, seemed knowledgable and also very capable in English, which was a requirement on our end.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
High competence in both development and English was key, together with pricing of course.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
Both developing new features and bugfixes in old ones was/is in the scope of this project. Priority etc is made in Trello which the devs then pick up by them selves. Deliverables etc are all made by the team at Blink22, but we of course store the code in our git to keep the IP in the right place.
How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
We've worked with 3 different developers, 1 very senior and 2 senior ones, all of which has been very statisfactory.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
No.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
This is right now quite an adhoc/burst based project. Things pop up and we get the help we need when needed. Communication wise we work with Trello and Slack (besides emails then). This has worked great for us.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
The most impressive thing has been their competence in app development. It has been very nice to talk/chat with people who are actually senior at what they do, and not just at their age. Ever so often I stumble upon "senior developers" that are just falsely
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Not really. One can always want people to stand waiting for you as soon as you want something done but that's not a sound expectation to have. We're all working to the best of our abilities, which I can see the guys at Blink22 doing as well.
the project
Web & App Dev Services for Social Commerce Platform
"We are impressed with their resourcefulness."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I am cofounder and CPO of Sokoun, Sokoun is a social commerce platform that offers the most affordable & quality household essentials to the masses via a gamified group buying experience.
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22, and what were your goals?
We worked with Blink22 on kickstarting our app development that included achieving:
- Full product and technical design of Sokoun Backend
- Full product and technical design of Sokoun Mobile Apps
- Full product and technical design of Sokoun Web dashboards
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
I have previously worked with Blink22 on a project during my days as a Head of product for Careem Bus. The decision to engage once again came from having:
- Access to great talent
- Clear alignment on ways of working together
- Confidence in quality delivery
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
Project started from scratch, from:
- Conceptualization and brainstorming sessions on the business model to be built
- Creating product & technical designs for the apps to be used
- Getting down to development and launch, which included:
- Backend infrastructure (NodeJS, Typescript)
- Mobile app (Android, kotlin)
- Frontend dashboards (Angular, React)
- Actual launch of the above, and doing the necessary devops/debugging for go live
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
8-10 team members were involved:
- 2 Backend
- 2 Frontend
- 2 android
- team lead
- QA engineer
- Product Designer
- Product Manager
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
Successful delivery of both Mobile App & Back office operations dashboard
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
We have utilized a kanban framework along side key communication tools that differed throughout the stages of development:
- Jira boards for tracking
- slack for communication (answering any pending questions herer and there)
- Twice a week sync ups to review design progress
- Weekly meetup to review/answer any pending topics with tech leads
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
We are impressed with their resourcefulness around different resources and profiles that were needed for the development. As the team was ready not only with Engineering capacity but also with Product capacity when it comes to Design and PMing needs
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
Perhaps faster timelines over resource allocation and initial estimations
the project
Custom Software Dev Support for HealthTech Startup
"They go the extra mile to ensure high-quality results."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I'm the CEO of a digital health startup. We have a B2B SaaS web app to improve wellbeing in workplaces.
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22, and what were your goals?
We were looking for a competent tech partner to help us refactor, maintain and add new features to our software. Also, develop a new communication dashboard to integrate with current tools and enhance platform performance. We are still yet to start the second part.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
We went through different competitors' proposals and narrowed our choice for Blink22 based on agility, clear communication and response time, honesty, high-quality portfolio and previous customer reviews.
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
The project is still ongoing, nevertheless, they have been working on project upgrade and debugging and performance and scalability. So far, the early work done is promising.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
The team is competent in catching up on the base of the code and hitting the ground running with further developments and problem-solving. The team mainly involves full-stack developers, back-end and DevOps engineers working on the project.
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
Still ongoing with many milestones yet to develop. However, It’s been great working with them and I am encouraged to move forward and strengthen our partnership further.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
We’ve been using different tools for different project stages. E.g. Slack, emails, Jira and regular standups. The communication so far is good and they always keep up to date with new trends to assure smooth communication.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
They go the extra mile to ensure high-quality results. Provide tech suggestions to keep current solutions smooth. The executive team's vision and entrepreneurial spirit made it easy to communicate new business models and consider different models to get work done.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
So far no.
the project
Shopify & Web App Integration for Beauty Tech Company
"They were really great and flexible given we had internal issues in providing timely documentation."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I’m the Head of Product Management at a beauty-tech company
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22, and what were your goals?
We needed a custom integration created between Shopify and our web app so customers could easily jump back and forth depending on if they wanted to shop or engage with our retention features.
How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?
Recommendation from a colleague
Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.
Refactored our legacy web app, migrated to a more modern stack, and created a custom data sync between Shopify and database.
How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?
4 people - 3 engineers & 1 product manager
Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?
Very impressed at their communication ability, which is hard to find in contractors. Skill set of the engineers are very good, and even though we were a scrappy startup, they were very good at creating deliverables based on the acceptance criteria. We also appreciate their willingness to accommodate PST hours in the beginning so we can transfer knowledge and adapt them to our processes.
Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.
They’re very comfortable in JIRA and Slack - providing good updates on progress.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
The engineers felt like they were members of our team, which is very unique to contractors in general.
Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?
They were really great and flexible given we had internal issues in providing timely documentation.
the project
iOS App Dev for Money Management Company
“We can blindly trust whoever they assign to a project — we can expect consistency in their work.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the lead product manager at KhataBook. We have an Android and iOS app available in the market; we’re one of the top business apps in India.
What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?
We hired Blink22 to develop our mobile apps. We were growing fast, but we didn’t have in-house engineers to build out our additional requirements. As a result, we needed Blink22’s help.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We already had an Android Khatabook app, so we only asked Blink22 to create an iOS version of it. We gave them our requirements, and they broke them down into development tasks. The team then gave us an estimated cost. From there, they started the development process. They also worked a little on the Android app’s frontend. Their resources used Figma for the app’s design, wireframes, and prototype. We did the QA testing.
At present, Blink22’s workload has increased. They continue to work with us as a part of our team. In terms of core features and functionality, the app is a money management platform. We help small and medium-sized business owners in India and across the globe develop their daily cash accounting; they can track their expenditures, profits, and losses through the app.
What is the team composition?
I’ve interacted with about 7–8 people from Blink22, including the product manager, developers, and designers.
How did you come to work with Blink22?
Our founder found Blink22 on Clutch. They seemed a little expensive compared to other Indian teams. However, their price was reasonable on a global standard. Since we had the funding, we decided to work with them.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent close to $300,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our partnership started in August 2019, and we’re still working together.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Within the first 60 days of launching, we’ve already seen success. We’ve reached a single-digit rank on Google, and we’ve even trended in India as we crossed 300,000 downloads. The Android version of Khatabook has 60 million downloads, while the iOS version has over a million downloads. We also have a 4.4-star rating and 35,000 reviews. Moreover, our iOS app is in the top business category chart — we haven’t even spent anything on marketing. As a result, we’ve decided to invest further in these projects.
Overall, Blink22 has built high-quality and stable products. Our app is light — the team has been able to bring our app’s size down to nearly 10MB, yet it remains functional. Our crash-free rate is 99.7%, and we’re trying to get it to 99.9%.
How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?
Blink22 has professional and clear communication. They only commit to what they’re confident about, and then they deliver it. Their pricing is also fair for what they do, and we’re happy with what they’re offering.
Moreover, the team is highly professional in terms of scheduling. They have a realistic timeline, and they stick to it. We don’t need to do follow-ups. We use Jira to track the project’s progress. We have standup meetings there, while we primarily communicate via Slack. Every once in a while, we use WhatsApp and emails.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Blink22 has a high-quality team that produces high-quality work. That’s why we can blindly trust whoever they assign to a project — we can expect consistency in their work.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there aren’t any. I don’t have any complaints about their work.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Document your requirements, and you’ll get the best out of them. When you give them the right instructions, they’ll do the right estimations and assign the right amount of people to the project.
This review was published on 04/04/2020
Rahul KR
Product Manager, Khatabook ADJ Utility Apps Private Limited
Financial Services
51-200 Employees
Bengaluru, India
$50,000 to $199,999
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
Project summary
After a digital lender's Android app's success, they hired Blink22 to build an iOS app. They were provided with designs on Zeplin, sprinting to build the app, integrate features, and launch on time.
Feedback summary
Within 60 days of launch, the app ranked #9 on all categories combined and #1 in the business category in the App Store with over 250,000 installs. Developers at Blink22 were highly-proficient, handling all difficult integrations with grace and friendliness.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and your position there.
Khatabook is a digital ledger app that allows micro, small and medium-sized businesses to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. I am Product Manager here and lead payments product along with leading the Khatabook's iOS app.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?
Our android app was receiving a lot of customer love and had breached 10 Million plus installs and there was a huge demand for iOS app. Hence, we looked up for firms who could deliver a high quality iOS app and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Blink22 now handles our iOS app development and also handles few components of our core android app.
What were your goals for this project?
We wanted to ship our iOS app by November end of 2019 and Blink22 hit that target and since then our goal has been to build on iOS app all the features which are available on our android app. We decide on weekly sprints and Blink22 has been able to meet every sprint deadline consistently. We currently have 250k+ installs on our iOS app and have crossed 30 Million installs of our android app.
SOLUTION
How did you select this vendor?
Our company's co-founder Dhanesh Kumar searched online for all the high quality teams who can build an iOS app and also work on our core android app. After reviewing a lot of firms for over a month within India we decided to look for teams based in abroad and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Dhanesh got in touch with Blinkk22's cofounder and after few rounds of calls, we decided to finalise them as our app development partners.
Describe the project in detail.
Once we finalised Blink22 as our partners, we took their tech team through our backend and explained in detail how our platform works. Post which, they started building new features for our android app, we provided them with the designs on Zeplin and added tasks on Jira to track the progress. They followed sprint diligently and kept shipping the features on time. The project included building few features on the android app plus to build and maintain complete iOS app right from choosing which platform to build our app on to backend integrations, designing of the screens, complete front end development and analytics logging.
What was the team composition?
We initially got 2 developers and 1 product manager for our android app development from Blink22's end. Then as we started our work on iOS app we added 2 iOS developers, 1 designer and their senior iOS engineer to ensure high quality gets shipped from their team.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
Within 60 days of our iOS app launch we were trending on App Store, we hit #9 rank on all categories combined. We have been trending on #1 on business category in India since many weeks now. Our iOS app has crossed 250,000 installs and our users are loving the app with 4.9 rating on App Store.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
It has been very smooth and effective. Yehia Ezzat, their product manager has been doing a great job in managing the entire project and team to keep things smooth even under very tough deadlines and ad-hoc task requests from our end. I worked closely with Nagendra, their designer to get high quality designs ready for iOS app. Their iOS developer Mohammed Allam has been an absolute rock star and we are very happy with his work and wish to keep building new features with Allam, Nagendra, Yehia and Dalia, their senior most iOS engineer who has helped us with all the difficult integrations and with such grace and friendliness.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out. Any challenging problem we throw at them has always been handled with eagerness and curiosity to learn and solve the task at hand. Their commitment to keep proper process and frameworks to ensure smooth delivery of project requirements has been a stand out point. Kudos to them for the same.
Are there any areas for improvement?
None I can think of, we have been completely satisfied and happy with their work. In between when the work was being slowed down a bit due to bugs they immediately replaced and alloted us a senior developer to make sure the project timelines and quality don't get affected.
RATINGS
Overall rating: 5
So far it has been a wonderful journey with them and we wish to keep continuing this for the foreseeable future!
Quality: 5
High quality apps have been shipped by them, top notch designs. Stable, high performance and smooth app.
Cost: 5
Everything worthwhile comes at a price & that's how it should be. We are happy to bear the cost due to their high-quality work which is what matters.
Schedule: 5
Very professional and on time. Never felt an issue in collaborating with their team.
Willing to refer: 5
Would definitely recommend Blink22 to any team in my network looking for an end to end app development firm.
the project
Mobile App & Website Dev for Business Management Company
"I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — quality has been top-notch."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the senior growth manager for a business management company. We make utility apps for the Indian ecosystem where we address the B2B side of things.
What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?
We wanted to enable Indian merchants with software that could bring their business online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We needed a partner to develop the iOS app and website for us.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They built our website and iOS mobile app end-to-end; they designed it, developed it, performed QA, and released it. Both of the deliverables enable merchants to create their catalogs, share them with their customers, and place orders.
What is the team composition?
At least five people are working with us.
How did you come to work with Blink22?
We worked with them in the past; they did a good job and kept up with timelines, so we hired them for this project. Also, their coding is good, and it’s easy for us to replicate internally.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent $100,000 with them so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in January 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The overall product was good. The paid marketing efforts have been minimal, thanks to the way that we implemented them. We retain a lot of users because of the way the product has been designed and coded.
How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?
Project management was pretty solid; we use Jira and do the Kanban setup. The person who works on the project management side has technical knowledge — it’s easy for them to understand what we need.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re agile, take ownership, and have clarity of thought. They’ve also been professional and understanding about the requirements for the product.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — quality has been top-notch.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Give them proper documentation and a clear objective with timelines, and they’ll get it done. They have great expertise within their team and resources for almost every tech stack possible.
the project
Mobile & Web App Dev for CRM Software Company
"We're always impressed with their communication and development skills."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a software company for home service and business owners. Our CRM platform allows home service professionals to schedule appointments, manage customers, and perform jobs.
What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?
We needed them to develop our mobile and web applications.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Blink22 has developed our mobile and web apps, which our previous in-house development team failed to complete. Their team has used both React and React Native to generate our tech products. They continue to support our company by applying site modifications and performing other development-related tasks.
What is the team composition?
We work with two mobile app and two web app developers.
How did you come to work with Blink22?
Blink22 understood the technical issues of our products — this was highly reflected in their project proposal, so I gained confidence in their team.
How much have you invested with them?
We've spent more than $20,000 so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in October 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We've only recently launched our apps, so there are no metrics to share yet. However, I can definitely say that I am highly satisfied with their work. Blink22 is an amazing team — they quickly deliver high-quality work and help us address all app-related issues.
How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?
We mainly communicate via Slack and Zoom. Blink22 has great project management skills — they always provide detailed timelines and documents.
What did you find most impressive about them?
We're always impressed with their communication and development skills.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Blink22's work meets our satisfaction, so we have no complaints.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Finalize the project scope before kicking off your engagement. Once this is laid out, Blink22 will deliver what you need.
the project
Mobile App Dev for Lifestyle Management Application
"I have nothing but good things to say about Blink22. They're probably my favorite team that's on the project."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO and founder of a lifestyle management company. It’s an iOS mobile application that helps users balance their lifestyle through video content, calendars, and messaging capabilities. I’ve worked on a lot of designs, strategies, and branding over the course of 10 years.
What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?
We’ve been working with Blink22 to develop and launch our product in the next six months.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Blink22 has developed our mobile app from scratch. We’re building it for iOS and, shortly, for Android and web as well.
What is the team composition?
Moustafa (Co-Founder & CEO) is my main point of contact. Blink22 has a full development team of probably 12 engineers and a couple of designers working on the project. We also have a QA and a project manager.
How did you come to work with Blink22?
I believe I found Blink22 through a review website while I was looking for different development US-based companies. I wasn’t looking for an agency with a heavy roster of developers because we’d lose quality nor a company with only co-founders. I wanted people who could bring some ammunition to the table; maybe a team of 6–10 people would be perfect.
I got a lot of calls with a lot of different people, but the background, experience, portfolio, and age of the Blink22 founders impressed me. I’d worked in tech for over ten years, started a company in college, worked on global consulting level for a large company after college, started another company, and I’d seen a lot of people in the space of tech, but not like them.
I wanted to slowly meet the Blink22 team. I met the project manager and some of the leads, who I was very impressed with. Then, we gave them the scope of the project.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested about $50,000, and there’s another $50,000–$100,000 still coming for the project.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working with Blink22 in October 2020. The project is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We have a realistic timeline, demos, and test scripts that we set out for Blink22 to understand and accomplish.
We aren’t launched yet, but it’s a big piece of software. One of these pieces could be its own app — it has three that are all integrated. We’ve had to break the project down into milestones and subprocess areas. Every two weeks, we have a demo that shows a piece of functionality and later integrates onto other pieces of the platform.
There’s also QA, and we do unit, string, integration, and end testing. Unit and integration testing are big things because, as we build, we make sure the software works with other parts and is standard. We have test scripts that we follow to know if it’s working or not — it’s very prescriptive.
How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?
We communicate with Blink22 through Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Slack. For project management, we use Jira, Figma for design, and SharePoint for my own personal repository. Blink22 has its own project management tool for internal purposes. It’s custom software that they've built to manage their products, and it’s integrated as a little plug-in into Slack — it can message their team automatically in Slack. It’s very impressive.
I have a weekly call with the project manager and a biweekly call with the sponsors. Everyone that’s onboard has been able to deliver, and they’ve been good about communicating. In addition, Blink22’s quality of work has been great. All development projects need debugging, but they have a good attitude when doing it.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I’ve started off in a smaller capacity with Blink22, but I’ve found that their team is highly capable, and they have excellent time management and communication skill set. I have nothing but good things to say about Blink22. They’re probably my favorite team that’s on the project.
At the beginning of the project, I was unsettled with their project manager — with who I had a good relationship — because we were in the early stages of getting to know how they work. However, when that happened, Blink22 brought in a more senior project manager who wasn’t even billable to help oversee the meetings.
That senior project manager has been on the project, even though he isn’t part of the effort model for their resources. Blink22 has been very quick to bring in new people when it’s needed.
We’ll keep building software with Blink22 for the next year and a half because of the contract. My mobile app will grow, and I can see our companies growing together to the point where their team would work full-time on my app. I want Blink22 to hire more people because we’re going to need a specialist.
I can see Blink22 growing and being one of the biggest companies in their region. I want to be part of that because of how well our relationship has developed.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Blink22 could have consistent project management, such as meetings. I want the project to be faster, but I need to have a more realistic expectation because it’s a big platform. The project is going to take longer, but I’m comfortable with the Blink22 team, and I’m sure that they’re able to do it. It’s the most complex thing I’ve ever seen.
Any advice for potential customers?
You should have your design work scoped out. The Blink22 designers are awesome, but they need something to work off of, so have your inspiration already built out. If you can, hire a consultant to help you with business questions before bringing them onto the project. You’ll have a better vision of your product when Blink22 comes on board because as soon as they’re part of your project, they’re going to take it and run with it.
the project
Software Dev for Ride-Hailing Platform Vertical
"They felt like part of our team."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the head of product at Careem, a ride-hailing app in the Middle East. It provides a platform that spins off different verticals such as the ride-hailing app, deliveries, and mass transportation.
What challenge were you trying to address with Blink22?
We needed a company to be the software development arm for one of our verticals.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They’re responsible for the frontend web development of our dashboards. They also provide mobile app development for iOS and Android native apps. They’ve been responsible for our customer apps and our driver apps.
What is the team composition?
There are around seven people working with us. We have a couple of people for Android, a couple for iOS, and 2-3 working on full-stack development.
How did you come to work with Blink22?
One of our colleagues used to work with some of the founders. We have an onboarding task for software houses that are going to be working with us. They passed that task and have been our development arm ever since.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent between $250,000-$300,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They had quite a high level of ownership over the project. They didn’t feel like an outsourced provider. They felt like part of our team, working with us to deliver the product as we hoped. The quality has been good. The engineers had mid-level experience and their work met expectations.
How did Blink22 perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve been very proactive and open to feedback. We made multiple changes to our contractual agreements, and we even made requests that weren’t part of our agreement that they have fulfilled for us. They’ve been quite collaborative.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their frontend capabilities are strong.
Are there any areas they could improve?
There was a little bit of turnover on their side for some of their engineers who were leaving for other opportunities. The pace of restaffing could have been improved a little bit. It cost us a couple of weeks of development.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Have very clear expectations on deliverables. Have dedicated product owners or project managers to work with them. Their engineers are of mid-level experience. Hence, there are some questions that need to be answered and they need someone to refer back to.
the project
iOS App Development for Digital Lender
"Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Khatabook is a digital ledger app that allows micro, small and medium-sized businesses to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. I am Product Manager here and lead payments product along with leading the Khatabook's iOS app.
For what projects/services did your company hire Blink22?
Our android app was receiving a lot of customer love and had breached 10 Million plus installs and there was a huge demand for iOS app. Hence, we looked up for firms who could deliver a high quality iOS app and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Blink22 now handles our iOS app development and also handles few components of our core android app.
What were your goals for this project?
We wanted to ship our iOS app by November end of 2019 and Blink22 hit that target and since then our goal has been to build on iOS app all the features which are available on our android app. We decide on weekly sprints and Blink22 has been able to meet every sprint deadline consistently. We currently have 250k+ installs on our iOS app and have crossed 30 Million installs of our android app.
How did you select this vendor?
Our company's co-founder Dhanesh Kumar searched online for all the high quality teams who can build an iOS app and also work on our core android app. After reviewing a lot of firms for over a month within India we decided to look for teams based in abroad and came across Blink22 on Clutch website. Dhanesh got in touch with Blinkk22's cofounder and after few rounds of calls, we decided to finalise them as our app development partners.
Describe the project in detail.
Once we finalised Blink22 as our partners, we took their tech team through our backend and explained in detail how our platform works. Post which, they started building new features for our android app, we provided them with the designs on Zeplin and added tasks on Jira to track the progress. They followed sprint diligently and kept shipping the features on time. The project included building few features on the android app plus to build and maintain complete iOS app right from choosing which platform to build our app on to backend integrations, designing of the screens, complete front end development and analytics logging.
What was the team composition?
We initially got 2 developers and 1 product manager for our android app development from Blink22's end. Then as we started our work on iOS app we added 2 iOS developers, 1 designer and their senior iOS engineer to ensure high quality gets shipped from their team.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
Within 60 days of our iOS app launch we were trending on App Store, we hit #9 rank on all categories combined. We have been trending on #1 on business category in India since many weeks now. Our iOS app has crossed 250,000 installs and our users are loving the app with 4.9 rating on App Store.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
It has been very smooth and effective. Yehia Ezzat, their product manager has been doing a great job in managing the entire project and team to keep things smooth even under very tough deadlines and ad-hoc task requests from our end. I worked closely with Nagendra, their designer to get high quality designs ready for iOS app. Their iOS developer Mohammed Allam has been an absolute rock star and we are very happy with his work and wish to keep building new features with Allam, Nagendra, Yehia and Dalia, their senior most iOS engineer who has helped us with all the difficult integrations and with such grace and friendliness.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
Their developers are really proficient and know their tech stack in and out. Any challenging problem we throw at them has always been handled with eagerness and curiosity to learn and solve the task at hand. Their commitment to keep proper process and frameworks to ensure smooth delivery of project requirements has been a stand out point. Kudos to them for the same.
Are there any areas for improvement?
None I can think of, we have been completely satisfied and happy with their work. In between when the work was being slowed down a bit due to bugs they immediately replaced and alloted us a senior developer to make sure the project timelines and quality don't get affected.
The client is pleased by the ad hoc nature of the partnership — Blink22 comes on board when they need support. Typically, Blink22 communicates well through Trello, Slack, and emails; they have excellent English-language skills. Their team is experienced and can provide all the help the client needs.