Personal Finance and AI with Cleo founder and CEO Barney Hussey-Yeo (The Derby Mill Series ep 22)

The Derby Mill regulars speak with Cleo CEO and founder Barney Hussey-Yeo about making better day-to-day financial decisions with AI.

Feb 5, 2026

Barney Hussey-Yeo is the founder and CEO of Cleo, the company behind an AI-powered financial companion that is transforming the way millions of people manage their money. Founded in London in 2016, the company has an annual recurring revenue of $350 million. It has doubled its subscriber base every year since 2021, and now has more than 300 employees in offices in London, New York and San Francisco.

Here, host Ajay Agrawal and the Derby Mill panel of Rich Sutton, Sendhil Mullainathan and Niamh Gavin brainstorm with Barney Hussey-Yeo on where Cleo may go, at the limit. How can the agentic AI help its subscribers avoid costly mistakes while offering advice that is both reliable and tailored to the individual? What challenges arise when working with incomplete, inconsistent financial data? And how will Cleo’s machine learning model transform the way regular people manage their finances? Barney, Ajay and the Derby Mill team discuss it all—and more.

GUESTS AND HOSTS

Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder and CEO, Cleo
‍Ajay Agrawal, co-founder and partner, Intrepid Growth Partners
Richard Sutton, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, 2024 Turing Award recipient, pioneer of reinforcement learning and professor, University of Alberta
Sendhil Mullainathan, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, MacArthur Genius grant recipient and professor, MIT
Niamh Gavin, senior advisor, Intrepid Growth Partners, Applied AI scientist and CEO, Emergent Platforms

LINKS

Subscribe to The Derby Mill Series at our Substack (main site) or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Watch Cleo’s one-minute demo video. And here’s the Cleo website.
Mentioned in the pod: Susan Athey’s co-written journal paper is Artificial Intelligence, Competition, and Welfare, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research
Derby Mill is created by the team at Intrepid Growth Partners and produced by Ghost Bureau.

DISCUSSION POINTS

00:00 Future of financial products and AI in banking

01:30 What is the Cleo AI personal finance assistant

04:04 Cleo growth active users and scaling an AI startup

05:41 How Cleo builds trust during onboarding

07:30 Using large language models for personal finance AI

12:04 Optimizing financial health with AI and Cleo

18:33 How conversational AI captures user context in finance

25:49 Cleo monetization strategy subscriptions and financial products

32:18 Pushing AI to the limit: next-gen finance applications

33:40 Holistic financial management with AI guidance

36:33 AI helping users achieve financial goals

44:41 Future of finance AI and market transformation

‍

DISCLAIMER

The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as marketing, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities or investments. The opinions expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Intrepid Growth Partners or its affiliates. Any discussion of specific companies, technologies, or industries is for illustrative purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to consult with their own financial, legal, and tax advisors before making any investment decisions.

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The Derby Mill Series

Intrepid Growth Partners’ Senior Advisors Rich Sutton (pioneer of reinforcement learning), Sendhil Mullainathan (MacArthur Genius recipient), and Niamh Gavin (Applied AI scientist) join Intrepid partner and co-founder Ajay Agrawal to explore what’s possible with the entrepreneurs implementing AI-based solutions and pushing out the productivity frontier.

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