Money is already complicated. Managing it shouldn’t be.

A person relaxing with coffee while the Moneko app and its black cat mascot automatically sort receipts, cards, and coins into budget categories

Moneko AI started from a frustration we had ourselves. We wanted to be more intentional with money, but most budgeting apps seemed to require a surprising amount of work just to keep them useful. You had to remember to log transactions, fix categories, update budgets, check spreadsheets, and, if you were sharing expenses with someone, remember who paid for what and figure out who owed whom.

We would start with good intentions, keep everything organized for a while, and eventually fall behind. The problem wasn’t that we didn’t care about our finances. We just didn’t want managing money to become another task we had to think about every day.

That led to a simple question:

“What if managing money required less managing?”

That’s where Moneko began.

We wanted to build something we’d actually use

From the beginning, we didn’t want Moneko to be another expense tracker where all the work still falls on you. We wanted tracking money to fit naturally into things you already do, whether that’s sending a message, taking a photo of a receipt, speaking an expense out loud, or simply making a purchase.

Today, you can use Moneko to track expenses through text, voice, receipts, notifications, WhatsApp, Telegram, and connected bank accounts. AI helps organize that information so you spend less time entering and cleaning up data and more time actually understanding where your money is going.

Expenses flowing into Moneko from a receipt, voice note, bank card, chat message, WhatsApp, Telegram, and a notification

We also wanted Moneko to work for the messy reality of managing money with other people. Couples don’t all combine their finances in the same way. Some split everything equally, some contribute based on income, and others share household expenses while keeping the rest of their money separate. The same is true for families, roommates, and friends traveling together.

Two people adding coins to a shared Moneko Space containing a house and groceries, while each keeps a personal wallet

Moneko Spaces

That’s why we built Moneko Spaces. You can create a shared space for a couple, household, family, trip, or group, manage expenses and budgets together, and still keep your personal finances separate. We think managing money together should be flexible enough to reflect how your relationship actually works, rather than forcing you into one system.

Budgeting without making your life about budgeting

We like the idea behind zero-based and envelope budgeting: give your money a purpose before it disappears. But we also wanted to make that idea easier to use in everyday life.

The Moneko cat dropping a coin into colorful budget pockets for mortgage, restaurants, travel, and savings

Moneko Pockets

Moneko Pockets let you set money aside for things like groceries, rent, eating out, travel, or a bigger goal you’re working toward. You can see what you planned to spend, what you’ve already used, and what’s still available without maintaining a complicated spreadsheet or constantly doing the math yourself.

Over time, we realized that simply showing people what they spent wasn’t enough. Most of us don’t really want more financial charts. We want answers to everyday questions like:

“Why did I spend more this month?”

“Can I afford a more expensive apartment?”

“What happens if I save another $300 every month?”

The Moneko cat sleeping on top of a phone showing an AI chat answering a money question with a spending chart

That’s the bigger direction we’re building toward with Moneko. We want it to become an AI money companion that understands your financial picture and helps you explore questions and scenarios using your own data. The goal isn’t to make financial decisions for you, but to make it easier to understand your options before you make them.

Moneko, the little black cat mascot, blinking

money+neko=moneko

neko — Japanese for cat

Why the name Moneko?

Moneko comes from money + neko, the Japanese word for cat, which is also where our little black cat comes from.

Money can be stressful and financial software often makes it feel even more serious. We wanted Moneko to feel approachable, a little playful, and easy to come back to. You shouldn’t need to be a finance expert or someone who loves spreadsheets to feel in control of your money.

We’re still a small team, and Moneko is still evolving. Many of the things we’ve built have come from conversations with people using the app, including couples figuring out how to manage money together, people searching for a simpler budgeting system, and people who just want to understand where their money goes without spending so much time tracking it.

We’re going to keep listening, experimenting, and improving Moneko around those everyday problems. Our goal is to build something useful enough to become part of your financial life, without making managing money take over your life.

Meet the team

We’re the small team behind Moneko, brought together by an interest in thoughtful design, useful AI, and making personal finance feel a little easier to deal with.

Alex Zhang

Finance & Operations

Advises on finance, accounting, and operations, helping ensure Moneko’s financial tools are practical, accurate, and grounded in real-world money management.

Sabina Shao

Product Design & Brand

Leads Moneko’s product vision, user experience, and brand, with a focus on making budgeting, expense tracking, and shared finances simple and intuitive.

Yifan Lim

Engineering & AI

Leads Moneko’s engineering, technical architecture, and AI development, building the systems behind automated expense tracking, financial insights, and a reliable experience across the product.

Try Moneko for yourself

See how effortless money management can feel when the app does the organizing for you.