Cino raises €3.5M to revolutionise shared payments with the first virtual card that splits and pays group bills instantly

Cino – the only real-time shared payment app that finally lets people pay together in a seamless, single transaction – has raised €3.5m in Seed funding led by Balderton Capital.

Tera Ventures, who led initial rounds, also participated, with new investors Connect Ventures also joining alongside leading angels, including Barney Hussey-Yeo (founder of Cleo). The funding will support Cino’s launch in the UK, where it already has a growing waitlist, and continued growth across Europe.

Launched in 2023 by CEO Elena Churilova and COO Lina Saleh, Cino is led by product and design experts — Elena, who brings experience from Bumble and Booking.com, and Lina, with a background in Human-Centred Design from Cornell University. Cino is the first solution that lets people truly pay together – charging everyone their share in real time, directly from their bank account at the point of checkout. 

Spending together as seamless as paying alone

By reimagining shared payments from the ground up with Gen Z’s needs at its core, Cino makes spending together as seamless as paying alone. It doesn’t just get rid of the need for reimbursements and difficult conversations; it stops them ever happening. 

A generational shift 

Cino is solving a generational shift in sharing and settling costs, that arises from new priorities and realities. Gen Z has been raised on digital wallets and banking apps, but the awkwardness of splitting costs remains. Living in shared houses for longer, splitting utilities and grocery bills, younger people also need to work hard to balance budgets in an unpredictable economy. Even within close relationships, joint bank accounts are becoming less common. 

Existing bill-splitting apps, built over a decade ago, were designed to manage debt. Their process – deciding what to input, how to split it, and when to request repayment – creates angst and negative sentiment around shared expenses. This is a significant problem, as evidenced by the fact that over half of us have ended a friendship, and a third of Gen Z couples have split, over money disputes.

Growing virality

Cino’s popularity is soaring as users share the app across social networks and by referring their friends. It’s seen 100% month-on-month growth in Finland and Italy and groups use Cino, on average, 17 times a month, spending up to €3,000. Active users typically make their first transaction within just hours of signing up and the company has a growing waitlist ahead of its UK launch later this year. 

With this latest funding, Cino will expand further across Europe, launching new shared payment features and exploring new verticals including B2B payments and rent.

Elena Churilova, co-founder and CEO of Cino said: “Fintech has always been one-dimensional but we are social creatures. Our payments should reflect how we actually spend money – together. Back in the cash days, it was simpler. Now that we’ve gone digital, payments need to evolve to keep up.

Greta Anderson at Balderton Capital said: “For too long, people have accepted standard bill-splitting, debt tracking, and repayment requests as the only way to manage shared expenses – simply because there was no alternative. Cino’s viral growth demonstrates that there is an alternative which users love. We’re excited to support Elena and Lina as they redefine how money moves between people and groups.”

You can read more on the round via TechCrunch