LA fintech Ensemble is helping divorced parents navigate their kids’ finances
Los Angeles-based fintech Ensemble, launched last year, is helping divorced parents co-manage their kids’ finances.
The digital challenger secured $3 million in seed funding from TTV Capital, Lerer Hippeau, and Citi Ventures two weeks ago.
Ensemble’s app features range from organising one-off expenses, to saving for college tuition
Ensemble has also received support and funding from Citi Ventures’ D10X programme.
An expense tracking app as its bare bones, Ensemble was founded by Jacklyn Rome – who now heads up the start-up as its CEO.
She spent nearly two years at Blue Apron, a recipe and food delivery service. As well as more than two years at Uber, where she led the launch of Express POOL in San Francisco.
50 million divorced parents in US
Rome’s parents divorced at the age of 14, according to an interview she did with TechCrunch at the end of last month.
Ensemble therefore targets “co-parents”. That is, those which are either divorced or separated.
The fintech estimates that the US houses some 50 million divorced parents. It says they currently rely on text messages and spreadsheets to track shared expenses for their children.
“Most co-parents either figure out finances on their own ad hoc or rely on child support payments — however, child support only covers food, shelter and clothing, which is only half of the cost of raising a child,” Rome tells TechCrunch.
“Even in the most amicable divorces, money is the number one thing that divorced parents end up arguing about.
“Ultimately, we want to help make sure that the children of divorced parents are not at a financial disadvantage when it comes to building for their financial future.”
Ensemble’s app features range from organising one-off expenses, to saving for college tuition.
It says its users, on average, track more than $1,000 per month in shared expenses for their children.
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