Co-Parenting Fintech Onward Announces $9.7M Funding

Furtherthe financial platform for co-parents, announced today that it has raised 9.7 million dollars in Series A funding led by TTV Capital with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Citi Ventures, Correlation Ventures and Gingerbread Capital. The funding 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-parents. The new funding will support the development of the team and expand the 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, which means that all expenses are up for negotiation. Even for those who have a child support agreement, child support does not cover medical bills, recreational activities and more, so they still end up going back and forth with the co-parent multiple times each month. Onward significantly reduces the friction in communication for these co-parents and makes it easier to see who owes who and pay each other back. The app also keeps track of all spending history for children, pets and other shared expenses, which can be exported at any time.

The funding signals a further hold on this particular market which continues to grow and requires tailored fintech tools for its very specific and often emotionally charged needs. It also comes amid an exciting period of growth for the company as it quickly acquires new clients and adds new members to the team, welcoming top talent from fintech companies including PayPal, Stash, Acorns and Intuit. It will use the Series A funds to continue growing the team, test new acquisition channels and gear up for a larger product launch.

“Money is the number one cause of arguments for co-parents, even in the most amicable of relationships. Watching my own parents divorce when I was 14 gave me an intimate understanding of the difficulties parents and their children face when it comes to difficult conversations about money. so Jacklyn Adele RomaCEO and founder of Onward. “We are very pleased 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 are determined to continue building products that reduce friction in their lives and provide social impact by enabling them to better parent the next generation.”

In addition to its financial products, Onward is also building a strong and uplifting consumer brand to empower co-parents in their next phase of life. Despite nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce, there tends to remain a social and cultural stigma around it. Onward is looking to reshape that narrative, normalize co-parenting and build a community that helps co-parents feel optimistic about the future.

“We always look for three things when we decide to make an investment: founder, vision and opportunity. Furthermore, it checks all these boxes and more” so Mark JohnsonPartner in TTV Capital. “Jacklyn and her team have dug into the co-parenting experience to design an intuitive product. We are confident that this infusion of new capital will enable Onward to build even more solutions that benefit co-parents everywhere.”

“Jacklyn and the Onward team stood out to us in their early work with Citi Ventures because we saw how the company addressed a huge gap in the market with thoughtful, people-centric financial services,” said Luis Valdich, Managing Director of Venture Investing at Citi Ventures. “We’re excited to continue supporting Onward’s growth trajectory as it enables co-parents to streamline financial discussions and focus on what matters most: their families.”

“We’ve been excited to support Onward from the beginning as they build a first-of-its-kind financial product for co-parents,” said Caitlin Strandberg, Partner in Lerer Hippeau. “There is a huge opportunity in this market and Jacklyn and the team are just getting started.”

Onward was founded in 2020 by CEO and serial entrepreneur Jacklyn Rome after her stints leading innovative new product launches at Uber and Blue Apron. Onward was founded while Jacklyn was Entrepreneur in Residence at Co-Created, a venture studio based in New Yorkwith support and funding from Citi Ventures.