A conversational AI platform that helps people complete income and expenditure assessments quickly, accurately, and with less stress.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founder: Rachel Curtis
Year founded: 2020
Website: Inicio AI
The Income and Expenditure (I&E) assessment process for those in debt is often slow, complicated, and many people never finish them.
It was this issue that founder Rachel Curtis says led her to launch Inicio AI. “Seven million people are now behind on bills,” she explains, “and our research shows around 40% of them can’t get the help they need as they cannot complete affordability assessments on their own and are too embarrassed to speak to another human to get help.”
Through the use of AI chatbot technology, the platform is designed to guide people through I&E assessments quickly, accurately, and with less stress. Inicio AI’s virtual agent, “Budgie”, chats with users through the process, without the embarrassment and judgement that can come from human agents.
It also gives each user a personalised form, and includes a built-in benefits calculator to see if they qualify for any extra income. There are benefits for businesses too. Inicio’s solution can increase form completion rates, enabling companies to reduce their call centre costs while offering a smoother customer experience.
People are too embarrassed to speak to another human to get help.
However, Curtis’ idea struggled to gain initial traction at first, as no one wanted to invest in the product without use cases. So, by starting with small organisations and charities, Inicio was soon able to prove the product’s value. This eventually led to larger clients and also opened the door to investment, including £2.6m in seed funding in April 2025.
Three months later, the Coventry-based company won KPMG’s Tech Innovator 2025 Award, and later went on to secure £1.35m as part of the “One To Win” pitch competition at Birmingham Tech Week’s Tech Awards.
Inicio’s impressive funding and recognition is a significant step towards its goal to power over 50% of the UK’s affordability assessments.
And, with plans to expand into the Oceania and Canada markets in the next five years, Inicio AI is truly soaring its mission to help more people in debt get the support they need.
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