Cello

Cello sells two related products. User referrals sit inside the software product itself, so an existing customer can invite someone without leaving the application. Partner referrals work the way a light partner program does: a partner gets a link and a portal, submits or influences a deal, and is paid when the deal closes. Both track the referral, calculate the reward, run fraud checks and handle the payout.

What separates it from other referral tools

Keeping the two motions apart. A user referring a colleague and a consultancy referring a client behave differently, are worth different amounts and need different controls, and most tools force both through one set of rules. Cello prices and configures them separately.

For the partner product, attribution can be driven by Salesforce or HubSpot events rather than by a signup form, which matters when the referred deal takes months and touches a sales team before it closes. That makes it usable for B2B companies whose revenue does not arrive through a checkout page.

The trade-off is scope. This is referral software, not partner management. There is no deal registration workflow with contested-lead handling, no reseller margin model and no certification tracking, so a growing channel program will need a PRM alongside it.

Who it fits

B2B software companies that want a referral channel running without building a full partner program, and product-led companies that want in-app user referrals from the same vendor. Customers the company names include Miro, Typeform, VEED, Descript, Pleo, GitKraken, tl;dv, Smoobu and Plancraft.

Ownership and company background

Cello is based in Munich, Germany and company databases give 2022 as the founding year. It raised a EUR 2.3 million pre-seed in 2022, then a EUR 3.1 million seed round led by HV Capital reported on 21 July 2023. Other investors listed in the company's own media kit include byFounders, Notion Capital, Tiny VC, Possible Ventures, Angel Invest and First Momentum Ventures. Seed remains the last confirmed stage, and no acquisition or merger was found in this review. The company does not publish a headcount.

Pricing

Published, and checked on 6 August 2026. The partner referral product has a free tier for up to 10 partners and one campaign, Plus at $200 per month for up to 50 partners, Pro at $400 for up to 250, and Enterprise at $1,000 for unlimited partners. Each paid tier was shown with a percentage discount applied. A 5% fee on partner referrals applies at every tier, including the free one, which is the part to model before committing: at scale that percentage, not the subscription, is the real cost. The user referral product is priced separately against referred revenue.

Integrations

Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe and Chargebee webhooks, a REST API, and mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter.