The Ward Digital presence for real neighborhoods The Split

Built Toward Citi

01The idea

Cary is The Ward’s commerce layer. It starts with neighborhood delivery: a customer buys from a local business, a local courier delivers it, and the business and courier get paid. Citi could provide the financial infrastructure behind it.

02How it could work

The Ward

Runs the neighborhood side: the order, the business, the courier, the rules and who is owed what.

Citi

Provides the financial infrastructure that accepts the payment, keeps track of the money, moves the funds and reconciles the result.

A single delivery order, left to right. A payments provider's functions on the upper rank — payment acceptance, funds kept separate, business payment, courier payout — with The Ward's roles beneath them: the neighbor paying, Cary splitting the order, the local business paid, the courier paid. Both ranks meet in one reconciliation band: the provider's reporting and The Ward's split. Payments provider Payment acceptance Customer payment Holding funds Funds kept separate Business payment Courier payout The Ward runs Neighbor pays Counter price Cary splits it Who is owed what Business is paid Counter price, less fee Courier is paid Tips entire Payments provider Reconciliation and Reporting The Ward The Split
One delivery order, from payment through payout. The top row shows what a payments provider does. The bottom row shows the corresponding parts of a Ward order. The dashed lines show where they appear to correspond; nothing is connected yet.

03Why Citi

Payments are the first obvious fit, but they are not the whole reason.

The Ward brings a neighborhood’s businesses, residents, places and services together in one place. Cary can support more than delivery: other local purchases and services can run through it as well.

Where those services involve moving people or things around a neighborhood, Citi’s name is already on another piece of the puzzle: bikes.

There is also a separate community‑investment case. Citi’s Impact Fund invests in U.S. companies working on access, resilience and social infrastructure. That creates the possibility that Citi could help establish neighborhood infrastructure while also having a commercial role in activity that happens through it.

04What we would work out with Citi

A pilot would determine the specifics: how businesses sit within the payment structure, how quickly businesses and couriers can be paid, what Citi requires from each participant, how refunds and disputes are handled, how Ward orders reconcile with Citi’s records, and what volume and controls Spring requires.

Cary’s rules—the split, the courier model, the customer experience and the relationship with the local business—remain The Ward’s.