While Venmo or Splitwise are indeed “debt collector” tools, which oblige a person to pay a complete invoice, then to ask for funds from others, none fell for payment. European startup CinoWho has created such a product, has now raised 3.5 million euros in a funding for seed financing led by Balderton Capital in London.
The shared payment application in real time allows a group to divide the invoice and pay its share directly from the bank account or the portfolio it chooses.
After emerging from Tallinn, Estonia, and operating in continental Europe since 2023, Cino will now use funding to develop in the United Kingdom
Directed by the CEO Elena Churilova (formerly of Bumble and Booking.com) and the chief of operation Lina Saleh (former University of Cornell), Cino seems to make waves among generation Z, which do not like “financial awkward” and among which the joint bank accounts – for the payment of things like shared household invoices – go like the path of dinosaur.
To use CINOs, users connect their card to the mobile application where they get a virtual card. They can then join shared payment groups where they define adjustable personalized divided ratios, such as those for a restaurant bill. Any member of the group can pay anything and everyone’s share is automatically deducted from the checkout, said the company.
All payments appear transparently in the group flow and users can reach or leave payment groups at any time.
Currently, all users are a CINO user for the application to work, but the company also builds a new feature where you can join directly via Apple Pay or Google Pay.
CINO claims to have growth of 100% from one month to markets like Finland and Italy, and says that its customers use the application 17 times a month, on average, to spend up to € 3,000.
“The way to configure it is similar to what WhatsApp works,” said Elena Churilova, Cina Cino CEO co-founder, on a call with Techcrunch. “You just create groups, then we publish virtual cards. You can add people, remove people from this virtual card and also change the split ratio. »»
Cino’s trip started when Churilova was working in Bumble and started to divide expenses with colleagues: “I tried each tool possible to understand how to do my weekends not in accounting exercises,” she said. “Then, I just had this moment of thought, like:” Why does no one build a way to pay together? ” »»
The application also takes advantage of the network effect on a scale, because each new Cino user can invite 2-4 others for free during their first six months to join.
“For too long, people have accepted standard requests for the closing of invoices, debt and reimbursement as the only way to manage shared expenses – simply because there was no alternative,” Cino Greta Anderson’s investor in Balderton Capital told a statement. “Cino’s viral growth shows that there is an alternative that users like.”
Connect Ventures and Tera Ventures also participated in this Tour, alongside the Angels, notably Barney Hussey-Yeo (founder of Cleo).
