OurFamilyWizard Receives Significant Growth Investment From Spectrum Equity

MINNEAPOLIS, April 30, 2020 (Newswire.com) - OurFamilyWizard, the world's most trusted co-parenting application, announced today that it has received a significant investment from Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm whose investments include SurveyMonkey, Headspace, The Knot Worldwide and Ancestry. The funds will be used to further invest in products to help families more effectively organize and communicate, improving the lives of their children. The company also announced that Nick VanWagner has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

Nick most recently served as the SVP of Product & Operations at When I Work, a subscription software company. Before that, he spent six years leading the Insights team at LinkedIn, where he helped build valuable experiences to connect and engage users.

"As I’ve gotten to know the OurFamilyWizard and Spectrum teams, I was drawn to the opportunity to lead a company that is fundamentally improving the lives of families," he said. "I'm inspired by the opportunity to build on our leading market position and bring more awareness of the value OurFamilyWizard can provide."

Founded in 2001, OFW provides both families and the professionals who serve them with the tools necessary for more seamless and successful co-parenting. Nearly one million users have leveraged OFW to share calendars, messages, journals, files, expenses and important information such as health and school records. The platform is recommended by courts in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

Judges, family law attorneys and mental health practitioners also use OFW in their practices to help parents maintain an amicable connection post-separation. The OFW application creates a detailed audit trail that gives a clear picture of what is really happening in the family. This is a vast improvement over text, email and traditional shared calendaring and expense platforms. By using OFW to facilitate co-parenting, countless families avoid trips to court, alleviating an overburdened and underfunded system.

"This is an important step forward for OurFamilyWizard and for family law," said OurFamilyWizard President Jai Kissoon. "Our company has always been bootstrapped, so finding a partner like Spectrum, who has a proven history of supporting the growth of companies like ours, is very exciting for us. From the start, they have demonstrated their belief in the importance of what we do for families."

"We are excited to partner with Jai, Larry, Bryan, Nick and the entire team," said Ben Spero, a Managing Director at Spectrum Equity. "Together, we can make OurFamilyWizard an even better product which scales to support many more families and professionals."

Parag Khandelwal, a Principal at Spectrum Equity, added, "Parents, courts and practitioners continually face critical co-parenting issues, which need to be handled with ease and efficiency. OurFamilyWizard’s 20-year track record of helping families affirms our belief that they’re well-positioned to help."

In conjunction with the transaction, Ben Spero and Parag Khandelwal of Spectrum Equity will join OFW board of directors, along with co-founders Jai Kissoon, President, and Larry Patterson, CTO. Jai, Larry, and COO Bryan Altman will remain as key leaders in this next chapter of the company’s evolution.

About OurFamilyWizard

Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, OurFamilyWizard invented the concept of a shared parenting application. Its website, iOS and Android applications have been used by nearly one million people since the company was founded in 2001. The platform allows parents to communicate, share calendars and journals, track expenses and transmit payments. OurFamilyWizard is recommended by family law attorneys, mental health practitioners and courts in all 50 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.  

About Spectrum Equity

Spectrum Equity is a leading growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support to innovative companies in the information economy. For over 25 years, the firm has partnered with proven entrepreneurs and management teams to build long-term value in market-leading software, information services and Internet companies. Representative investments include Ancestry, Bats Global Markets, Definitive Healthcare, GoodRx, Grubhub, Headspace, Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey, The Knot Worldwide and Verafin. For more information, including a complete list of portfolio investments, visit www.spectrumequity.com.

Media Contact: 
Erin Olsson 
Phone: 415.244.5959 
Email: [email protected]

Source: OurFamilyWizard