Uber alum wins $9.7 million to curb finance-related fights between co-parents • TechCrunch

If you’re a parent, one of the hardest things about divorce is still dealing with your ex on financial matters related to your children.

And according to 2015 report, only 50.2% of all 13.6 million custodial parents in the United States had either formal or informal child support agreements. Even in these cases, most agreements do not cover expenses beyond the essentials, such as medical bills and extracurricular activities, among other things.

This means that divorced parents end up going through a lot of arguments about who pays for what, how and when. Finances when you are a parent are an issue in even the most amicable of divorces.

The daughter of divorced parents herself, Jacqueline Rome founded Onward in 2020 with the goal of helping divorced and separated parents manage their shared expenses more easily. Rome, who previously led new product launches at Uber and Blue Apron, said she created the app with the intention of not only easing parents’ headaches, but also helping reduce stress in the family as a whole. As she can personally attest, children also suffer greatly from being caught in the middle while their estranged parents fight over money.

today, Forward — previously called Ensemble — has raised $9.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Atlanta-based TTV Capital to advance its mission. Lerer Hippeau, Citi Ventures, Correlation Ventures and Gingerbread Capital also participated in the financing. The Los Angeles-based startup previously raised $3 million in seed funding in March 2021

Since then, Onward has rolled out a number of new features, including the ability to pay your other parent through the platform, partial payments, and the ability to track other non-child related expenses, such as shared mortgages or phone bills.

Another parent, for example, may have taken a child to the dentist at a cost of $120. They can upload a photo of the receipt and the other co-parent gets a notification to see all the details of the expense. The two can negotiate if needed, all through the app, and settle expenses by connecting with payment providers like Venmo or Zelle through the Onward platform.

Rome said the company has grown significantly, with nearly 100,000 installations. Until now, Onward has relied on social media as a marketing tool, including using TikTok as a platform. By partnering with influencers who are co-parents, Rome said, the startup has increased awareness of its offering.

Ahead remains ahead of revenue. The company plans to start monetizing early next year through a “package” of new financial products,” including linked credit cards, according to Rome. Down the line, Onward may also build a paid subscription model.

Incorporating transparency into the platform is also a priority, Rome said.

“A lot of times men will say that transparency is their biggest pain point — they may or may not believe the spending is legitimate,” she told TechCrunch. “In our app, they can view receipts, and eventually with our cards, they’ll be able to verify from a third party where each transaction took place.”

Onward’s new capital will go towards building these products, additional testing of new marketing channels and increasing the current staff of 10.

While there are a number of fintech companies in the wider family tech space such as Greenlight, Step and Acorns, Rome believes there are “ton the green spaces of this market.’

“There are 50 million co-parents in the United States, and they represent a huge, huge market that is still underserved,” she said. As for the reason, Rome speculates that “it may be seen as a slightly less sexy market, or those who have gone through it are less likely to start a company.”

TTV Capital has doubled its investment in Onward, with partner Mark Johnson describing the app as “brilliant in its simplicity”.

“Jaclyn and her team really listened to the co-parents using the app – and went above and beyond by introducing new improvements and features based on their needs,” he wrote via email. “We are proud to support Onward as they scale to help even more co-parents easily navigate their unique financial situations.”