PlotBox, in this recent press release, announces that they have received a US$ 6.2 million capital investment from Guiness Ventures and other existing investors.  The press release states that the company,  “Headquartered in Northern Ireland with offices in the United States and Australia, . . . has grown over the last decade from multi-award-winning startup, to become the leading digital transformation partner of choice for deathcare service providers across the globe.”

 

The press release also states that, “The new funding will support PlotBox’s strategy for global growth and expansion, enabling its continued development of best-in-class products and services that will help to revolutionise the way deathcare facilities both operate and grow.”

 

About Plotbox:  PlotBox is the innovative cloud-based deathcare management solution that enables cemeteries and crematoria to serve their families in the best way possible. Powered by PlotBox’s integrated software and mapping, deathcare providers can improve their service, save time, increase revenue, reduce risk, and grow more quickly. Everything in one place, giving more time to focus on what matters most.

Click here for the PlotBox website.

 

About Guiness Ventures:  Guinness Ventures is part of Guinness Asset Management, a London-based specialist fund management company, established in 2003. Guinness manages over £6 billion for institutional and retail investors, investing in public and private companies.  Guinness Ventures is a leading EIS Investor, who since 2010 has raised and invested over £200 million into more than 100 companies. A generalist investor with an ethical focus, several of the fastest growing companies in the UK are held in their EIS portfolio. Guinness Asset Management is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

Click here for the Guiness Ventures website.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’ve been involved in the death care business for over 40 years and for probably about 15 of those years served on a large cemetery association board.  We had the old maps and when someone bought a grave space their name was placed on the “official” map, a deed was given to them, and then we waited for the eventual interment.

 

Once the interment took place the grave lot was coded on the “official” map as having an interment and we just kept moving along.  To understand this process you have to understand that the first burial in this cemetery was in the 1850’s and nothing about the registration and recording had changed for 150 years.  It was archaic and screamed for an upgrade. . . and there was plenty of opportunity for errors to occur.

 

Well, companies like Plotbox have now created cemetery software that goes far beyond the capabilities of what we thought possible only 20 years ago.  It’s a blessing and has helped cemetery management move into the 21st century. . . .and this software revolution in some ways mirrors the movement of technology into Death Care a few decades behind the world’s general movement into technology. . . .creating what may become a new “Power” group in Death Care.

 

From my point of view, the financial power side of death care may be changing.  At one time power with Death Care finances was centered in the large product manufacturing companies such as caskets, vaults, and chemicals.  I think that over the past 30 or so years the financial power has moved from those companies and been centered in the large national funeral and cremation service providers such as Service Corporation International.  However, my thinking has evolved to the point that I believe the financial power in the profession has, or soon will be, moving to the companies that provide the technology that make it easier for death care consumer operations – like funeral homes – to operate.  Companies like PlotBox fit that bill.

 

Moving forward I think those of us in the funeral and cremation space will be seeing more investments into the technology that will make funeral home, cemetery, and crematory operations easier to use as compared to the investments that for the past 30 years has been directed into building regional or national consumer death care operations.

 

Related:  Flashback Funeral Director Daily article —  Providence Strategic Growth said to have a deal “north of $1 billion” for Tribute Technology.  November 6, 2020

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• The future of Arlington National Cemetery uncertain.  The Patriot
• Columbariums installed at Forest Grove Cemetery.  The Columbus Messenger (OH)

 

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