Venmo or Splitise is effectively a “debt collector” tool, requiring one person to pay the full invoice and ask for funds from another, but they are not cracking the invoice split at the moment of payment. The European startup CINO, which came up with exactly that product, has raised 3.5 million euros in a seed funding round led by London's Balderton capital.
The real-time shared payment app allows groups to split their invoices and pay stocks directly from their selected bank account or wallet.
After leaving Tallinn, Estonia and operating in continental Europe since 2023, CINO will use this fund to expand to the UK
CINO, led by CEO Elena Churilova (formerly Bumble and Booking.com) and COO Lina Saleh (formerly Cornell University), appears to be making waves among Gen Z, who dislike “financial nuisance” and who hate payments for things like household bills that dislike joint bank accounts.
To use CINO, the user connects the card to the mobile app and obtains the virtual card. You can then join a shared payment group that sets an adjustable custom split ratio, such as a restaurant invoice. Group members can pay anything, and everyone's share will be automatically deducted upon checkout, the company said.
Image credit: CINO
All payments are visible transparently in the group feed, and users can join or resign in the payment group at any time.
Currently, all users are NED to become CINO users for the app to work, but the company is building new features that allow you to join directly via Apple Pay or Google Pay.
CINO claims it has grown by 100% over a month in markets such as Finland and Italy, saying its customers spend an average of up to 3,000 euros, 17 times a month.
“The way you set it up is similar to the way WhatsApp works,” explained Elena Churilova, co-founder and CEO of Cina's Cino, in a call with TechCrunch. “Just create a group and you issue a virtual card. You can also add people, remove people from that virtual card, and change the split ratio.”
Cino's journey began when Churilova was working at Bumble and began splitting costs with his colleagues. “Then I was thinking this, like, 'Why aren't anyone building a way to pay together?” ”
The app also uses network effects to scale as it allows you to invite 2-4 people for free within the first six months of new CINO users to join.
“For too long, people have embraced standard bill splits, debt tracking, and repayment requests as the only way to manage shared expenses, simply because there were no alternatives.” “The growth of the Cino virus shows that there are alternatives that users love.”
Connect Ventures and Tera Ventures also participated in the round alongside Angels, including Barney Hussey-Yeo (the founder of Cleo).