Onward, the financial platform for co-parents, announced it has raised $9.7 million in Series A funding “led by TTV Capital with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Citi Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and Gingerbread Capital.”
The investment round “comes on the heels of significant growth for the company, which is the only fintech app designed to serve the needs of divorced and separated parents.”
Onward has “gained significant momentum with nearly 100,000 installs from those seeking relief from the tense, unclear, and often disorganized methods of managing money with their co-parent.” The new funding will “support growing the team and expanding its portfolio of innovative fintech products.”
Onward’s mission is laser focused on “improving the lives of co-parents and creating happier homes for the next generation.”
Today, the roughly 50 million co-parents in the U.S. “rely on messy text messages and emailed spreadsheets to keep track of shared expenses for their children, often leading to unnecessary arguments.”
The vast majority of these co-parents “have no child support agreement in place, meaning that every expense is up for negotiation.”
Even for those who have a child support agreement, child support doesn’t cover medical bills, extracurricular activities, and more, so they “still end up going back and forth with their co-parent multiple times each month.”
Onward significantly “reduces friction in communication for these co-parents and makes it easier to see who owes whom and pay each other back.” The app also “keeps a record of all expense history for children, pets, and other shared expenses, which can be exported at any time.”
The fundraise signals Onward’s hold “on this particular market which continues to grow and demand tailored fintech tools for its highly specific and often emotionally-laden needs.”
It also “comes in the midst of an exciting growth period for the company as it rapidly gains new customers and adds new members to the team, welcoming top talent from fintech companies including PayPal, Stash, Acorns, and Intuit.”
It will “use the funds from its Series A to continue expanding the team, test new acquisition channels, and gear up for a major product launch.”
Jacklyn Adele Rome, CEO and founder of Onward, said:
“Money is the number one cause of arguments for co-parents, even in the most amicable relationships. Seeing my own parents get divorced when I was 14 gave me an intimate understanding of the difficulties that parents and their children face when it comes to difficult conversations about money.”
Jacklyn added:
“We’re very excited and grateful to continue to have the support of our investors as we aim to address a significant and unaddressed need for millions of co-parents across this country. We’re determined to continue to build products that reduce friction in their lives and deliver social impact by enabling them to be better parents to the next generation.”
Beyond its financial products, Onward is also “building a strong and uplifting consumer brand to empower co-parents in their next stage of life.”
Despite the fact that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce, “there tends to still be a societal and cultural stigma around it.” Onward is looking “to reframe that narrative, normalize co-parenting, and build a community that helps co-parents feel optimistic about the future.”
Onward was “founded in 2020 by CEO and serial entrepreneur Jacklyn Rome following her stints leading innovative new product launches at Uber and Blue Apron.”
The company was “founded while Jacklyn was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Co-Created, a venture studio based in New York, with support and funding from Citi Ventures.”