PairTree, a startup that matches expectant moms with families who are eager to adopt, is expanding into a full-service platform that supports multiple aspects of the adoption process.
The Seattle-based company recently raised $650,000 to fund the effort. Investors include Urban Innovation Group, Trust Ventures and Cubit Capital. Total funding to date is $7.85 million.
To broaden its services, PairTree is bringing professionals onto the platform who can facilitate the adoption process. That includes adoption lawyers and agencies, as well as state-licensed workers who conduct required home studies to screen and approve families looking to adopt.
The site connects all players in a highly fragmented ecosystem into one online community, helping participants nationwide navigate adoptions.
“Until everybody is connected on one platform, we can’t create the change that we’re all craving in the industry,” said PairTree co-founder and CEO Erin Quick. “So it’s a huge endeavor. But it’s one that has a massive upside.”
PairTree provides quality control, hosting only ethical, licensed adoption professionals on its site. Quick has set a goal this year of getting 30 agencies, attorneys and home study providers to sign on exclusively with the platform. The count is now at 16. That includes a provider that conducts home studies for families interesting in fostering a child, which provides additional routes to adoption.
Families looking to adopt pay PairTree for packages that can include creating a profile, promotion on social media, education on adoption, and receiving a home study.
Quick founded PairTree in 2020, inspired by her own challenging and expensive journey that resulted in the adoption of two children.
PairTree originally marketed itself as a cheaper, faster alternative to traditional adoptions, reducing the need to use attorneys and agencies in states that don’t require their services. Quick said the company still provides both of those benefits by streamlining the process, even when families hire adoption professionals.
As part of her mission to broadly improve the sector, Quick is working to create the National Consortium of Ethical Adoption Professionals. The organization would protect against scams and establish safeguards. That includes providing support for birth mothers, facilitating open adoptions in which a birth mother retains contact with an adopting family, and ensuring that potential birth mothers aren’t pressured into adoption.
Consortium members would also agree to serving a diversity of families. Many adoption organizations have religious affiliations and some states allow adoption agencies to refuse to work with certain clients, including gay couples or single mothers.
The values all align with ethics that PairTree has embraced.
Its 8-person team includes a mom who has gone through the adoption process twice and can advise other expectant mothers,. The company gives 5% of fees paid by adopting families to organizations supporting birth mothers. It is also committed to working with LGBTQ families and different religious beliefs.
