British AI-based personal finance chatbot Cleo has raised £2 million in a funding round led by Robin Klein at VC firm LocalGlobe and joined by Skype founder Niklas Zennström
London-based Cleo integrates with users' bank accounts through a deal with SaltEdge Financial Aggregator and then uses AI to analyse spending habits and transaction histories to help with money management.
Created by a team staffed by machine learning experts who have worked at Google, Wonga and Amazon, the bot provides insights across all UK bank and credit card accounts through Facebook Messenger.
Users can view their spending according to transactions, categories and merchants, as well as automatically save money, send funds via Messenger without bank details, find deals on financial products, and compare their spending habits with peers.
Since launching in January, Cleo has answered more than one million user queries and is now managing more than £400 million in assets, spread across tens of thousands of users. The firm also claims strong engagement, with more than 70% of customers still using the service regularly three months after signing up.
The new money will be used for product development, international expansion and hiring, particularly in marketing and engineering.
Barney Hussey-Yeo, CEO, Cleo, says: "Legacy banking software is unable to cater to the needs of a generation that is used to instant responses and real time interaction. We designed Cleo to make it easy for anyone to understand where their money is going, to easily save, or to send money to friends instantly through a familiar interface."