Exclusive: An early Stripe employee raises $5 million to launch an alternative to ‘patriarchal’ fintech apps that let only one person manage a couple’s money
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo talks Olympics, Adidas appoints former WNBA player Candace Parker as president of its women’s basketball business, and a new fintech platform wants to make it easier for couples to combine finances—and put more women in the driver’s seat. Have a thoughtful Thursday!
– Financial planning. When Emily Luk and Channing Allen started talking about getting engaged, they took early steps toward combining their finances. They asked each other questions on a list of topics to discuss with your partner before getting married. The couple—who met while working at the fintech startup Even, later acquired by Walmart—went from sending Venmo requests to split the costs of big trips to figuring out how they would buy a house or raise kids.
Throughout the process, they realized that combining finances for people in their demographic—millennials marrying in their 30s—wasn’t simple. Everyone they knew was getting married after at least a decade in the workforce and was accustomed to managing their money independently. And their friends relied on a laundry list of apps, from budgeting apps to investment roboadvisors to their regular bank. Those apps were designed for one user; while many platforms allow for a secondary user who can view accounts, most do not allow two users to deposit and withdraw funds. “Existing institutions made this very patriarchal assumption that only one person in the relationship is ever really involved in managing the money,” Luk says.
The experience planted the seeds for Plenty, Luk and Allen’s platform to help couples manage their money. Luk, a Stripe alumna, is now the CEO of the business, launched in 2022; Allen is its chief technology officer. The platform is debuting today, with $5 million in seed funding, Fortune is the first to report. Its investors include Inovia Capital, Garage Capital, Otherwise Fund, and Interplay. Meena Harris’ Phenomenal Ventures and Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures were among its pre-seed investors.
Courtesy of Plenty
The founders designed their platform for couples to manage their finances with a “yours, mine, and ours” strategy. Both members of a couple can have accounts that belong only to them alongside joint accounts on the shared platform, and even private accounts the other person can’t see—something Luk says people cautiously combining finances for the first time often want. They have protocols in place for breakups; users retain what was only theirs on the platform and can later add a new partner to their account.
The eight-person startup sees itself combining the tools of traditional financial planners, budgeting apps, and roboadvisors. Plenty costs $100 per person per year, plus annual investing fees, and offers financial products including cash management, investing, budgeting, and forecasting. The goal is to add other products, like a couple’s first joint credit card.
Luk has spent time thinking about women’s approach to money in relationships. Seventy-four percent of widows and divorcées surveyed by UBS discovered “negative financial surprises” after losing their spouse or ending their relationship, sometimes by combing through emails and accounts to figure out what they had; 76% said they wished they’d been more involved in long-term financial decisions. She hopes that making it easier for couples to see everything in one place puts fewer women in that position. “Our goal is to become the primary place where a couple manages their money,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Game on. In a new interview with Time magazine, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says “a woman was needed” to bring the 2024 Olympics to the French city on its fourth attempt to host the games. Hidalgo views hosting the Olympics as an opportunity to advance the environmental policies and infrastructure she sees as her legacy. Time
– Brand building. Adidas appointed newly retired WNBA star Candace Parker as president of its women’s basketball business. Parker was the first woman to design a signature shoe for Adidas in 2010 and will now help the company fill product gaps that previously left women without viable choices. Fast Company
– Club fair. London’s famous Garrick Club voted to accept women into its exclusive pool of famous and politically-powerful members amid criticism of its centuries-old men-only policy. Actress Judy Dench and scholar Mary Beard were among the women that club members said they would quickly nominate for membership. New York Times
– Protection pivot. A male contraceptive that founder Kevin Eisenfrats compares to an IUD is currently undergoing clinical trials in Australia and is eyeing FDA approval. The contraceptive called ADAM, developed by Eisenfrats’s startup Contraline, is an injectable sperm-blocking gel. TechCrunch
– Ghost votes. Nikki Haley won more than 21% of the votes in Indiana’s presidential primary on Tuesday in the latest show of support for the former Republican presidential candidate. Haley, who dropped out of the race in March, also won 17% of the vote in Pennsylvania’s contest two weeks ago. AP
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Instacart promoted finance VP Emily Reuter to CFO.
ON MY RADAR
So was body positivity ‘all a big lie’? The Cut
Drake and Kendrick Lamar don’t care about misogyny Vox
The Stormy Daniels testimony spotlights Trump’s misogyny The Atlantic
PARTING WORDS
“If I told you that you had a business that experienced a $140-million jump in revenue over five years…and now, on its own, was valued at over $1 billion? You would be jumping for joy.”
— WNBA player and ESPN host Chiney Ogwumike on the growth of the league
