London startup Nous has brought in $17M to expand its AI agent, which switches energy deals, cancels unwanted subscriptions and books repairs for British households. The money comes from Heartcore Capital, a venture firm based in Copenhagen, and Mosaic Ventures, which first backed Nous at seed stage.
Greg Marsh, who founded Nous and runs it as chief executive, said the team had spent the last 18 months building an agent “that not only feels magic, but is also one people can actually trust”. “If you are allowing an AI agent to make financial and purchasing decisions on your behalf, you need to know it’s up to the job,” he added, explaining why Nous keeps its focus on household spending and admin.
Alongside Heartcore and Mosaic, Chalfen Ventures, Joyance Partners and Bain Future Back Ventures also put money in. Angel investors joined too, among them Tom Blomfield, who co-founded the digital bank Monzo and the payments firm GoCardless, and Brent Hoberman, a co-founder of the startup studio Founders Factory.
Nous plans to use the money to cover more of what households spend, moving further into regulated work such as a wider range of insurance and other financial services. It also wants the agent to take on more everyday chores and to launch outside the United Kingdom, although it has not named the countries it will enter.
How The Household Agent Works
Nous works in the background and keeps in touch with its users over WhatsApp. People can connect a bank account or email inbox to help it find savings and spot admin that needs doing. They also choose which jobs the agent may handle, and can change those permissions at any time.
Within those limits, the company says, the agent can switch energy, broadband, mobile and car insurance deals, cancel subscriptions and chase refunds. It also flags costly renewals and contract terms, fills in forms, keeps family calendars up to date and finds local tradespeople to book.
Unlike tools that only make suggestions or send reminders, Nous carries out those tasks itself once a user has given permission. Hark, an American company, has taken a similar route with an assistant that buys things using a card the user stores with it. Nous relies on large language models, the technology behind chatbots such as ChatGPT, for most of its work, but the company says it switches to fixed rules for sensitive decisions, especially those involving money.
Subscriptions, Commissions And Rewards
Households can use Nous for free, with the agent managing up to two services, such as broadband and a mobile phone. A Premium plan costs £6.99 a month per household and removes that limit, adding full subscription tracking, unlimited household logins and round-the-clock help with admin, subject to a fair-use cap.
The company earns money from those subscriptions and from commissions paid by providers when free users switch to eligible deals. Premium members get those commissions back as cash rewards, which Nous says usually build up over 12 months as long as they stay with the provider and keep their membership.
Nous says it makes no money from advertising or from selling customer data. It is also a certified B Corporation, a label given to companies that meet set standards on social and environmental performance.
For regulated products such as insurance, Nous works as an appointed representative of Stubben Edge & Partners, a firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the British financial regulator. In practice, Nous does that work on Stubben Edge’s behalf under a written agreement, while Stubben Edge oversees it and answers to the regulator for it.
About 250,000 Homes On Board
Nous says about 250,000 British homes now use the service. Its pricing page puts typical yearly savings at £310 on the free plan and £960 on Premium, depending on which bills the agent handles. Marsh has described most of its users as “typically working mums”, adding that “this isn’t a toy for tech bros”.
In its own survey of more than 2,000 adults, published in October 2024, Nous found that 71% admitted putting off life admin, with renewing a broadband contract the job they were most likely to ignore. “Unfortunately, our broadband, energy and mobile providers know this – and use it to their advantage,” Marsh said at the time.
From Onefinestay To Household Bills
Marsh started Nous in 2021 with co-founders Jon Rudoe and Glen Walker. He began his career as an investor at Index Ventures and went on to found onefinestay, a marketplace for luxury home rentals, which he led until the hotel group Accor bought it in 2016.
Rudoe, now chief commercial officer, was previously digital and technology director at the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. Walker, the chief operating officer, worked alongside Marsh at onefinestay and later co-founded Trouva, an online marketplace for independent shops.
The company’s seed round in 2022, led by Mosaic Ventures, raised $9M (£6.6M) from Mosaic and more than 65 angel investors. At that point Nous offered a free dashboard that tracked a household’s bills in real time and flagged when providers raised their prices.
In 2023 the company added its first AI assistant, which sorted and summarised the energy bills users uploaded or forwarded from their inbox, and pointed out possible savings. Nous said then that broadband, mobile and insurance documents would follow, along with alerts sent through WhatsApp.
Nous Heads Into Its Next Phase
Nous now has fresh money from Heartcore Capital and Mosaic Ventures, a paid plan alongside its free one and an agent that already switches deals and cancels subscriptions for British homes. Its next stage takes it into more kinds of household spending, more regulated products such as insurance, and other countries.
The household numbers and savings figures are the company’s own, and Nous has not said where it will launch first. Marsh has argued that people need to know an agent is up to the job before letting it make financial decisions for them. He has given that as the reason Nous keeps to household spending and admin, where the company says fixed rules handle the most sensitive money decisions.
For now, the service remains built around the United Kingdom. There it works through WhatsApp and earns its money from subscriptions and provider commissions rather than advertising.
