A relatively new death tech app, Empathy, recently raised $30 million in Series A funding according to this article from Tech Crunch.  The product is designed to help bereaving families navigate the choppy waters  that result when a family member or someone close to them dies.

“Empathy is a customer-centric company with compassion at our core. We aim not only to help families who are dealing with loss but also to act as a catalyst for change in the industry at large,” said Ron Gura, co-founder and CEO of Empathy.

According to CEO  Gura the company is already seeing 250,000 bereaved people visiting and using Empathy’s services each month.  According to the company web-site which you can access here, the app also helps with storing and locating documents, cancelling subscriptions, probate, and other items in addition to helping one with funeral or other final arrangements.

Empathy has looked to partners to help it move into areas where the product can get into the hands of users.  For instance, it already has partnerships with New York Life in the insurance industry, Compassus in the hospice industry, and StoneMor LLC in the death care business.  CEO Gura mentioned this as one reason why, “The reason for this is simple: bereaving families often start to ask questions of the people who are connected to those final stages, but those people’s focus is the job at hand, as much as they’d like to help with other aspects and to provide comfort.”

In relation to those partnerships CEO Gura also made these comments:

• “When families come into the hospice, the truth is around the corner and they turn to the coordinator. And all the coordinators want to do is help: they are usually good people who work in a complex field, but they have limited resources and capabilities as they need to move on to the next family.
• “The funeral director is the closest thing to a concierge in this situation.”

Partnerships with these types of people, hospice providers and funeral directors, seems to help as those professionals can then suggest the app for services that they are not designed to do.

Only five months ago Empathy announced a financial raise of $13 million and this $30 million raise is on top of that according to this article from Hospice News.

Here is the website for Empathy.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Lawrence County family dedicates cemetery to ancestors.  Video story and print article.  OzarksFirst.com  (MO)
• Yes, it is possible for a corpse to explode during cremation.  Science Focus — BBC (Great Britain)

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