Tera Fund II company Cino, founded in Estonia, has recently raised a €3.5 million seed round led by Balderton Capital, according to TechCrunch.
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Cino OÜ, developed by Elena Churilova and Lina Saleh in 2019, created a payment app to simplify bill splitting and shared purchases among friends, family, or housemates.
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The app eliminates the need for one person to chase others for repayment by allowing all group members to instantly pay their share directly from their bank accounts at the point of sale.
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The app uses the network effect to grow by allowing each new Cino user to invite two to four other users for free during their first six months.
Investment details
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The round was led by London’s Balderton Capital, a venture capital firm that funds early-stage technology and internet startups in Europe. Balderton is considered one of the four largest venture capital firms in London.
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Tera Ventures, an Estonian venture capital firm that invests in early-stage born-global digital startups, led previous investment rounds and was joined in this round by Connect Ventures and leading angels, including Barney Hussey-Yeo (founder of Cleo).
“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,” Balderton Capital partner Greta Anderson said.
Cino has a growing waitlist in the UK and is expanding throughout Europe. Fresh funding will support the UK launch and continued European growth.
