As the famous saying goes, death is one of life's inevitable certainties. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to deal with. Especially since while their loved ones are grieving, they also have to juggle a dizzying array of practical tasks, from arranging funerals to settling the deceased's finances. A startup called Empathy has built a platform to help navigate this difficult space, with about 40 million people currently using it, and has raised an additional $47 million in funding to grow. I am.
The Series B equity round is led by new backer Index Ventures, which includes several major insurance companies as strategic investors: MassMutual Ventures, MetLife, New York Life, Securian, and Sumitomo. . The company initially started its business with a more direct sales model, but now operates primarily through its B2B2C approach and provides services through employer or insurance company insurance contracts, which account for 99% of its business. doing.
The funding will continue to build the company's tools and support its larger efforts to, in the words of CEO Ron Gulla, who co-founded the company with Jonathan Bergman, “redefine bereavement care.” Used to focus on the mission.
Currently, Empathy's platform combines AI and human guides to help guide the bereavement process, from counseling services and AI that helps write obituaries, to services that help automate the process of closing all dozens of services. We help people in all different aspects of. Research cloud services that the deceased may have used or that may have helped solve more complex financial issues.
Future services will likely incorporate more AI tools to guide people through the “what next” question as they sort things out, Gura said.
This round brings the total amount raised by Empathy to $90 million. Empathy hasn't disclosed its valuation, but sources close to the company say it's currently approaching $400 million.
Although the startup was founded in Israel and continues to expand its R&D operations there, its focus so far has been on the U.S. market, selling its services primarily through insurance companies and employers. To date, approximately 5 million employees and 35 million policyholders are using Empathy's tools, Gura said.
Empathy's entry into the market comes at a timely time. Empathy is his 2021 US release. It was during the peak of the pandemic, when people were probably dying more than usual. And, after all, it was peak venture funding. Therefore, the company quickly announced his two rounds in the year of launch. Initially, he was paid $13 million, and just five months later, another $30 million.
Although the U.S. death rate is now improving after the harshest years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual death rate will still exceed 3 million people in 2023, according to U.S. Census figures. There is. What hasn't decreased is the amount of time required to sort out the affairs of the deceased (more than 420 hours on average). Most people have no idea what goes into an initiative until they are actually faced with it (unfortunately, what I know from first-hand experience is very true) ).
Mr. Gura is a serial entrepreneur who founded a social commerce company, sold it to eBay (The Gift Project), and then held a senior role at WeWork for years, but a family tragedy forced him to abandon his job. He said he is facing this exact predicament of managing his practice through a company. His own experiences when he became emotional led him to think about empathy.
“I knew nothing about estate planning, but I knew a lot about grief,” he said.
The rise of more sophisticated AI tools has played a role in how Empathy has evolved over the past few years. There's been a lot of effort in the field considering what role AI could play in empathy (with a small 'e'), but startup Empathy has decided to keep a human team for that aspect. Gura said the company remains focused on Rather than services, we focus our technology on making it easier to handle some of your hectic organizational tasks in a faster, more cost-effective, and scalable way.
“For Empathy to offer this service at stake to all life insurance policyholders is only possible with intelligent technology,” Index partner Danny Reimer said in an interview. “There are a lot of parts that are handled by individuals, but we need to provide them with a lot of tools.” [alongside that]…Practical things like being able to close bank accounts and subscription accounts. AI can provide much of the logic that can be replicated. It is also useful when writing a eulogy. ”
In addition to Index and the insurance company, other companies in the round included previous backers General Catalyst, Entrée Capital, Latitude (a sister fund to existing investor LocalGlobe), and Brewer Lane.