Israeli startup Empathy offers people an emotional service that helps families navigate the journey they face after losing a loved one. The need for such a service should not be underestimated. The company brought in $47 million in a Series B funding round, which brought its total capital raised to date to $90 million.
Empathy is at the center of what it means to be human. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” We expect that all people should have this ability.
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And everyone needs another person’s empathy in difficult times, especially when they lose a loved one.
Have you ever suffered a loss? Do you know someone who is grieving right now? If so then you know that people who have just suffered a loss are not only in mourning but usually find themselves needing to navigate all sorts of bureaucratic red tape. And then there are all of the menial tasks that need to be taken care of from dealing with closing bank accounts, ending all manner of subscriptions for telephones and internet and informing anyone who needs to know.
According to Empathy, bereaved people spend over 500 hours, on average, dealing with immediate needs, like arranging a funeral and validating a will, as well as long-term processes such as estate administration, benefit claims, and property cleanout. Technology makes this bureaucracy more efficient – freeing families to deal with emotional repercussions, and to be there for one another. So this is where the company’s app comes in.
Empathy co-founders Ron Gura (right) and Yonatan Bergman. (Photo: Dedi Elias company pic)
Founded in 2020 by Ron Gura and Yonatan Bergman, two entrepreneurs with experience innovating a wide array of fintech and consumer sectors, Empathy’s technology-enabled platform is designed to guide families experiencing loss with purpose and compassion. The duo began their work together at The Gifts Project, acquired by eBay in 2011, and over the last decade have held various leadership positions including at PayPal, eBay, and WeWork. The Empathy team consists of a multidisciplinary lineup of professionals from the legal, accounting, product design, engineering, and cybersecurity sectors, as well as grief experts who came together to help families deal with loss.
“Understanding that the impacts of loss are universal, we embarked on this journey, driven by a belief in technology’s inherent power to facilitate support at scale, across boundaries and demographics,” said Ron Gura, Empathy Co-Founder & CEO. We looked at the antiquated end-of-life industry and saw it as the single largest consumer sector still untouched by innovation, barely even making use of software.”
