Onward Wins Visa Everywhere Initiative: Most Innovative Fintech Startup With A Female Founder
By Godson Umejiego, Bureau Chief, The Americas
In the US there are currently 50 million co-parents, jointly caring for their child(ren) while juggling the complexities of shared expenses. All the while, money is the #1 cause of arguments among divorced and separated parents. Combine the fact that the average cost of divorces is upwards of US$25,000, with only 53 per cent of child care costs being covered by child support – the need for co-parenting tools has never been greater!
While many try to mediate and control communication and scheduling issues between co-parents, no tools are attempting to resolve the financial aspect of co-parenting which often ends up being the #1 cause of arguments. That’s where Onward steps in, the first financial platform built specifically for co-parents to track and get paid back for shared expenses. Onward is also building other tools as this is not a one size fits all solution. They recently launched an invoicing platform for those less collaborative relationships that don’t want to use the same app, enabling one co-parent to send expenses to the other via email. Soon to come to market is a broader community of educational content and resources and additional financial products.
On Wednesday, Onward was announced as the Grand Prize Winner of Visa’s Everywhere Initiative: Women’s Special Edition. This competition recognized and awarded prizes to the most innovative female-led fintech startups. Alongside Jacklyn Rome, three other startups were nominated: Kata Ludvig (Founder & CEO of Baoba), Nichole Montoya (Co-Founder & CEO of Cheddar Up) and Fernanda Orduña (Co-Founder & Software Developer of Decaf). The judges of the competition were Angela Kadon of Visa, Kate Dinota of Visa, Kristin Slink of Tech AF Founder Academy and Bukie Adebo Umeano of Anthemis. The event was MC’ed by Marie-Elise Droga, SVP, Head of Fintech Partnerships, Global and North America of Visa.
“We are thrilled to have won the Visa Everywhere Initiative!” says Founder and CEO of Onward, Jacklyn Rome. “We are excited to use this momentum to continue improving the lives of co-parents and creating happier homes for the next generation. We’d like to extend a big thank you to all of our co-parents who gave Onward a chance and trusted us with one of their most sensitive relationships.”
The daughter of divorced parents herself, Jacklyn Rome founded Onward in 2020 with the aim of helping divorced and separated parents more easily manage their shared expenses. Rome, who previously led new product launches at Uber and Blue Apron, said she built the app with the intent of not only alleviating headaches for the parents but also helping reduce family tension overall. As she can personally attest to, children also suffer greatly from being caught in the middle as their estranged parents bicker over money.
