Cino is redefining how people split and share payments—eliminating the awkwardness of money conversations by enabling real-time group payments. No fronting costs, no chasing repayments, no stress. In their words: Play Together, Pay Together. We’re excited to participate in Cino’s €3.5m seed round because we believe real-time split payments is the solution to a widespread social problem and is the first step in creating a social layer for finance, an opportunity that has enormous upside.

Cino was founded by Elena Churilova and Lina Saleh in 2023, two exceptional product founders with a relentless focus on user experience, network effects, a bold vision for financial infrastructure, and a deep understanding of the social dynamics of money.

Payments are solo, but humans are social

The way we handle shared expenses is broken. Whether it’s couples managing monthly bills, friends splitting dinner, or flatmates dividing rent and groceries, existing solutions are designed for the solo payer experience and make shared payments clunky, manual, and often create stress and anxiety in relationships.

Enter Cino.

‍

Cino enables people to pay together in real time—splitting transactions instantly and seamlessly at the point of purchase. Each group sets up their preferred payment split and every member’s share is deducted directly from their bank account, removing the need for awkward conversations about paying each other back.

Elena’s insight came from her time at Bumble, where user research consistently surfaced money disputes as a major source of relationship stress. With Gen Z and Millennials increasingly sharing expenses, but moving away from joint bank accounts, Cino was born to bridge this gap.

The Product

At its core, Cino is a real-time, bank-agnostic shared payments app.

1️⃣ Users create a group and securely link their bank accounts.

2️⃣ They set a custom split (e.g., 50/50, 40/40/20, 75/25 - whatever fits your relationship).

3️⃣ They each receive a virtual Cino card, which works anywhere Visa is accepted.

4️⃣ One person pays, and everyone is charged their share instantly.

What we love about Cino:

🔹 Frictionless UX: Cino makes spending together as seamless as paying alone.

🔹 Network Effects: Groups naturally invite others, driving viral adoption.

🔹 Massive Market: From flatmates to friends to couples, this is a 50M+ user problem.

🔹 Go-to-Market Strength: Early traction in Finland & Italy shows rapid organic growth, and Cino has a fast-growing UK waitlist ahead of launch.

The Future of Shared Payments is Cino

Cino isn’t just solving a niche problem—it’s building the social layer for finance. Today, it’s group payments. Tomorrow, it could power splitting rent and utilities, subscription-based shared expenses and ecommerce checkout.

With this latest funding, Cino will launch in the UK and develop new social features. We’re thrilled to support Elena and Lina as they create the category of Pay Together.

🚀 Want to see Cino in action? Sign up for early access at getcino.com.