Elena Churilova, CEO & Co-founder, Cino
Today, we're meeting Elena Churilova, CEO & Co-founder of Cino, the FinTech app and shared virtual card that enables groups (couples, friends, roommates etc.) to pay together by splitting payments automatically at the point of transaction with a single tap.
Over to you Elena - my questions are in bold:
Who are you and what's your background?
I was raised in Italy, and now live in Amsterdam. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in International Relations, I initially thought I’d make a difference by becoming a diplomat. I soon realised I could have a greater impact by building solutions to real-world problems, which led me to product development and entrepreneurship.
I built new business verticals and products for millions of users at companies like Booking.com, @Navan (an Andreessen Horowitz portfolio company), and Bumble.
During my second week at Bumble, I started dating someone new and - as a product person - I tested all available options for managing our shared expenses. I realised that no one had cracked this area of FinTech yet - players in the space had only helped manage the process of settling debts, not paying together in real-time.
What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?
I am Co-founder and CEO of Cino. My day-to-day varies a lot like any founder, but I tend to work closely with the engineering team and our designers on building new products, in addition to managing investors and stakeholders.
By far, the most rewarding part of my job is listening to all of the insightful feedback from our users - hearing how Cino has positively impacted their relationships brings me so much joy.
Can you give us an overview of your business?
Until now, fintech solutions have enabled their customers to calculate debt, but have not created a way for people to pay together in real time. We built Cino to do just that: allow people to pay for things together - be that big ticket items like hotels and flights, or splitting everyday essentials like groceries.
Consumers currently have to go through a lengthy process every time they want to split a bill because they are not able to pay together. If you were booking flights with your friends, for example, you would have to front the initial cost, work out who owes what, factor in any previous debts, and then chase everyone for their share - perhaps several times. Cino cuts out all of the admin, calculation and settling-up by pulling everyone’s share directly from their bank accounts in real-time and making a single payment to the merchant. This payment comes from a shared virtual card, with its own spending limits and split ratios as decided by the group.
Whether it's roommates sharing rent, friends splitting dinner, or couples handling daily expenses, Cino makes it seamless and effortless to pay together.
Tell us how you are funded?
We're a VC-backed startup, with investors including Tera Ventures, HEARTFELT_, Atomico Syndicate, Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN) and other angels.
What’s the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?
During my time at Bumble, I was testing the app and, coincidentally, I swiped right on my now-partner of four years. As we started dating, I quickly grew frustrated with how inefficient managing shared finances was.
We tried everything: keeping track of expenses manually, splitting costs on apps, even opening a joint account. But it was all too frustrating and inefficient, turning our precious weekends into accounting and admin work.
As a product person, I couldn’t believe this was still the status quo in 2021. All the existing solutions felt like band-aids; managing the process rather than solving the actual pain point.
It hit me that the solution needed to happen at the moment of payment, not before (like joint accounts that need to be topped up) or after (like payment requests). At the time, I didn’t realise that what we were building wasn’t just a simple fix—it was the foundation of an entirely new fintech vertical: shared payments.
I met my co-founder Lina at an event in 2021, and we instantly clicked over this shared frustration and our passion for making group payments seamless and fair. And that’s how Cino was born.
Who are your target customers? What’s your revenue model?
Our target customers are primarily Gen Z, but also Millennials - roommates, couples, and friends with recurring expenses like rent, utilities, dining, entertainment and subscriptions. They want an easy way to manage shared costs while keeping their bank accounts separate, without the hassle of manual tracking or payment requests.
We make money from interchange fees (users don’t pay this fee), and from currency exchange when our users travel abroad. It’s a frictionless model that scales as people incorporate Cino into their everyday financial interactions. In the future, we’ll offer premium features for those who want an elevated experience with enhanced capabilities. So I’d recommend staying tuned to what we do next!
If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?
If I had a magic wand, I’d accelerate the modernisation of financial infrastructure. While we’ve made significant strides as fintech founders, there are still areas where the current system creates unnecessary friction - whether it’s speeding up time to market, navigating compliance, preventing fraud, or managing a fragmented ecosystem.
These are solvable issues. Instead of patching up outdated systems, we need a fresh approach that empowers fintech companies to build faster and enables more secure products for everyone, even banks and incumbent players.
What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?
Fintechs and big banks can and should coexist! I’d love to see more open, agile communication channels between fintechs and banks in future, both to bolster the creation of new technologies and to innovate and improve more traditional processes.
Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?
I get my news from various places, and love reading insights in publications such as Finextra, TechCrunch, the Financial Times, Forbes and Sifted.
Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?
Marcel van Oost and Panagiotis Kriaris are some people to follow on LinkedIn. I appreciate their short, digestible key updates on the fintech industry the moment they happen. It’s also great to read insights from their perspectives about where fintech and the payments sector are heading.
What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?
I use a wide range, including Revolut, n26, bunq, Wise, Dyme, and Klarna.
What’s the best new FinTech product or service you’ve seen recently?
The budgeting app Cleo has been on my radar for a while. I think they have done a great job.
Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?
I see a few key trends shaping the future of fintech. Firstly, payments will become more integrated into everything we do, blending seamlessly with our daily experiences. This means payments won’t just happen in traditional settings anymore—they’ll be embedded directly within social media, enabling experiences like collaborative shopping with friends. It’s less about isolated buy buttons and more about weaving payments into the fabric of interactions, making them a natural extension of user engagement across platforms
Then, of course, AI. It’s set to grow massively in fintech, moving beyond mere personalisation to truly dynamic, adaptive services. We’re all tired of the same generic, one-dimensional offerings. It’s time for financial products to get smarter, proactively suggesting ways to better manage money and truly adapting to individual payment behaviours. But AI is also helping with the mundane but essential parts of finance like automating admin tasks and transforming fraud prevention - things that would require a lot of resources and time can be automated now to one quick overview.
Finally, shared payments will become the new norm. With rising living costs, splitting expenses isn’t just a convenience—it’s essential. We’re already sharing costs for rent, travel, and dining, and as this trend grows, companies that master seamless shared payments today will shape the future of payments tomorrow.
Elena, thank you so much for taking the time to participate!
You can read more about Elena Churilova on LinkedIn and read more about her company Cino at https://www.getcino.com/.