Partnerships Manager, Cleo AI
New Bets Discovery
£55-70k
+ Equity
1-3 days a week in office
AI personal finance assistant
Job no longer available
AI personal finance assistant
501-1000 employees
Job no longer available
£55-70k
+ Equity
1-3 days a week in office
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To change the world’s relationship with money.
Role
Who you are
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Strategy, or related field
- ~3+ years experience in strategy, partnerships, corporate development, consulting, or product strategy (Fintech preferred)
- Strong analytical capability — comfortable with financial modeling and market sizing
- Demonstrated experience building structured business cases for leadership decision- making
- Ability to challenge assumptions and act as an objective evaluator
- Clear, concise communication skills — especially in executive-level storytelling
- Experience working cross-functionally with Product teams
What the job involves
- We are seeking a highly analytical and strategic Partnership Manager to support Product teams during early-stage New Bets Discovery by identifying, assessing, and comparing potential partners
- Reporting to the Director of Partnerships, the role is embedded within the New Bets Discovery squad to enable rapid exploration and evaluation of partnership-led opportunities, while maintaining strong alignment with the broader Partnerships function
- Acting as a strategic gatekeeper, this role ensures that only high-quality, commercially viable partnership opportunities progress to leadership review
- The successful candidate will conduct rigorous market research, evaluate partner fit and strategic alignment, and support the development of robust business cases for new bets to be presented to leadership for approval
- Once approved, partnerships will transition to dedicated Partnership Leads for legal negotiation, commercial structuring, and onboarding
- As Cleo diversifies its product offering and invests in dedicated New Bets Discovery squads to identify and assess future growth opportunities, this role will play a critical part in evaluating partnership-led expansion pathways
- Identify and screen potential partners aligned to Cleo’s evolving product strategy and long-term diversification goals
- Build and apply structured evaluation frameworks to compare potential partners across strategic fit, customer impact, commercial upside, operational feasibility, and risk
- Conduct early-stage due diligence and feasibility assessments to validate opportunity size, regulatory considerations, technical complexity, and execution risk
- Act as a strategic quality filter within New Bets Discovery, ensuring only robust, high- conviction partnership opportunities are developed into formal proposals for leadership consideration
- Partner closely with Product during early discovery to explore whether partnerships are the right solution
- Provide market intelligence, competitor analysis, and ecosystem mapping
- Help shape partnership hypotheses and validate opportunity size and strategic value
- Support Product teams in developing clear, data-driven business cases for new partnership bets
- Model potential value, risks, and trade-offs
- Prepare materials for leadership review and greenlighting decisions
- Ensure proposals meet internal investment and governance standards
- Define clear scopes and objectives before transitioning approved partnerships to Partnership Leads
- Ensure smooth handover to Legal and Commercial teams for negotiation and onboarding
- Maintain documentation and decision rationale for institutional knowledge
Salary benchmarks
Our take
People are increasingly not satisfied with the products being offered by traditional banks, which have proven slow to react to the needs of younger consumers who expect more from their everyday experiences.
Cleo was one of the first companies to make great use of chatbots that sit within Facebook's messenger app. This chatbot-first approach and Gen Z user base have given it strong virality. It now has millions of registered users, 99% of which are based in the US, leading to a decision to take a year break from the UK market to focus on its US Gen Z customers. And after a successful year in the US its now eyeing up a return to the UK.
Its Series C funding will help the company to double down in the US, where it will make a significant increase in employee headcount, and enable Cleo to maintain and expand its service during an economic downturn.
Financial advice delivered via bots is a crowded space, so Cleo benefits from having a strong brand presence. It has gone for very bold, fun, Gen Z-focused messaging which helps it to stand out from competitors such as Emma, Plum, and Chip.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Jun 2022
$80m
SERIES C
Dec 2020
$44m
SERIES B
Total funding: $137.7m
Company benefits
- Meaningful equity with early exercise, plus top-ups on promotion
- Primary caregiver: 18 weeks at full pay / Secondary caregiver: 6 weeks full pay, 6 weeks half pay (dependant on tenure)
- Paid 1-month sabbatical every 4 years
- Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
- Learning & development training platform
- Mental health support via Spill
- Company-wide performance reviews every 4 months
- We’ll cover your OpenAI or Claude subscription
- Pension match up to 6%
- Life assurance
- 25 days annual leave + an extra day for every year you’re at Cleo (up to five accrued days)
Company values
- Make it Happen - Own the outcome. Lend a hand, take a hand. Fast execution.
- No bullsh*t - Intellectually honest. Go hard on problems, not people. Data-backed decision making.
- Learn at Speed - Jump in and figure it out. Dig deep, do it right. Learn what matters.
- Bring Good Vibes - Read the room, lift the room. Show up for others. Keep it real, keep it positive.
Company HQ
Finsbury, London, UK
Leadership
Barnaby Hussey-Yeo
(Founder & CEO)Previously a Data Scientist at Wonga, one of the companies that pioneered the smart use of data for loan decisions. Joined Entrepreneur First where Cleo was formed.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Cleo AI
- We’ve set up an internal committee of truly passionate people that are dedicated to ensuring Diversity and Inclusion is embedded in how we all operate as a team. We agree on meaningful actions, and get on with implementing them. We have three main focuses right now, which are:
- 1) Improving SocioEconomic diversity across the company
- 2) Increasing the number of women in Leadership roles
- 3) More community outreach
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