Portfolio

Cleo, a digital assistant designed to help millennials look after money, secures $10m Series A investment

SEP 21, 2018

Cleo announces today that they have secured $10m in Series A investment, lead by Balderton Capital.

Cleo is a digital assistant that helps people manage their finances, is on a mission to become the global interface for money. 

The latest $10m of investment funding brings Cleo’s total investment raised to $15m, since being founded in 2016. Balderton joined a world-leading set of existing backers that include Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype, Taavet Hinrikus, founder of TransferWise, Simon Franks, co-founder of LoveFilm, and seed fund LocalGlobe.

Cleo has 600,000 users across the UK, US and Canada, with 30,000 more signing up each week

How Cleo works

Users securely connect their bank accounts to Cleo, who sits on top, giving them personalised insight into their spending data. Predominantly millennials, Cleo’s users talk to her in Facebook Messenger, where she creates a daily relationship between them and their money.

Cleo is designed to solve a global problem. There’s an arms race going on to become the financial interface for this generation. A Google-size company will emerge in the next 5 years that achieves that.

Barney Hussey-Yeo, Founder & CEO, Cleo

Cleo is now set to launch its own range of financial products. CEO Barney Hussey-Yeo points out that “from overdraft fees to credit cards, the traditional range of financial products doesn’t work for this generation. The model of retail banking is not set up for the people it serves. Cleo’s changing that.”

The company will continue to expand internationally, following a successful launch in North America in April 2018, which saw 350,000 people sign up within four months. Hussey-Yeo notes that “Cleo is designed to solve a global problem. There’s an arms race going on to become the financial interface for this generation. A Google-size company will emerge in the next 5 years that achieves that.”

In the future, people may not use a traditional bank account as their primary financial interface.

Rob Moffat, Balderton Capital

Rob agrees: “In the future, people may not use a traditional bank account as their primary financial interface. Cleo has managed to strike the perfect balance between education and entertainment, bringing a unique personality that keeps users coming back. We believe that Cleo has the team and product to become the leading global player in the coming years.”

Team Cleo at their Shoreditch offices

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