Looking Back on a Transformative Year in Compassionate Care

As we approach the end of 2024, I want to take a moment to reflect on Empathy’s journey over the last year, and where it will take us in 2025.

This year was one of growth and transformation for Empathy, as we elevated our powerful mission, to help families in their moments of greatest need, from an empassioned pursuit into a new industry standard. What began as a vision of comprehensive bereavement support has now evolved into a new standard for compassionate care and an essential service that is trusted by leading employers and insurers across North America. 

As we expand into new areas and new partnerships, every day we are able to reach more and more families with the compassionate care they need when difficult times strike. The world is waking up to the fact that these challenges will affect us all at some point, and that it is our collective responsibility and capacity to provide assistance, comfort, and peace of mind to those who face them. 

On the front lines of this new era of compassion and mutual support, Empathy is setting the bar for multiple industries when it comes to how we can and should best support families during life’s most significant moments, and how these values drive measurable value through exceptional ROI for the enterprises that embrace them.

A Milestone of Trust

This spring, Empathy successfully closed a $47 million Series B funding round. Led by Index Ventures, the round included strategic investments from some of the world’s largest life insurance carriers—a powerful endorsement by the insurance and financial services industry of our mission and our vision for the future. 

These investments and the vote of confidence they represent will enable us to grow our reach and deepen our commitments in the coming years, as we expand into new markets, serve more families, and continue innovating in how we support them through life’s most challenging transitions.

With revenue growth surpassing 300% in 2024 compared with the previous year, we are well-positioned to accelerate our expansion across the US and globally.

Making a Meaningful Impact

Four years ago, we launched Empathy with a strong mission: to transform the way the world handles unexpected change. We wanted to bring support to every family during their times of greatest need. This vision has driven our product, design, software engineering, brand, and overall growth as we evolved new technologies and solidified our place in both the life insurance and employee benefits markets. In the past year, as our reputation has grown for the indispensable services we provide, our mission has become the industry standard in both of these industries, serving millions of families who wouldn’t have otherwise received this level of support, and truly setting the bar for compassionate care. 

Through our partnerships with dozens of purpose-driven life insurers—including a majority of the top ten carriers in the US—we’ve helped establish comprehensive loss support as an essential part of every life insurance claim. Today, Empathy’s services are integrated into one in every five claims in the United States, providing families with much-needed support right at the moment of their greatest need. Carriers are seeing a meaningful lift in generational loyalty, NPS, and asset retention across their business lines, as doing the right thing for families is also good for business. With history’s largest-ever wealth transfer right around the corner—younger generations, many of whom will also be life insurance beneficiaries, are poised to inherit $7.8 trillion by 2040—there has never been a better time for insurance companies to double down on services that support families and cement loyalty.

In the employee benefits space, our huge impact reflects the growing trust that families and their employers place in us. Research shows a single loss affects an average of nine people, meaning that 1 in 5 members of a workforce may be dealing with bereavement each year, impacting their health, financial stability, and work performance. 

Our 2024 Cost of Dying report revealed that 47% of bereaved people experience negative impacts at work, including 92% of those who serve as the executor of their loved one’s estate. Considering that the vast majority of companies provide some form of bereavement leave, it is clear that much more than time off is necessary for both employees and the health of their companies. 

Throughout 2024, we strengthened our ability to support these workers effectively, meeting them where they are with the practical tools and emotional support that they need to get through these challenges. We have partnered with over 1,000 progressive employers, who have transformed their workforces’ bereavement experience by providing them with company-sponsored care that goes far beyond bereavement leave. 

Empathy’s compassionate support has saved these employees a total of hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs, as well as innumerable amounts of stress and heartache. And we are poised to expand even further, with 35% of companies in a recent study indicating that have made enhancements to their bereavement policies in the past year or are planning on doing so in the next 12 months. This reflects a growing recognition that bereavement must be addressed, and it must be addressed holistically.

A Team Driven by Purpose

An organization is nothing without its people, and the Empathy team continued to prove its seemingly limitless potential in 2024. In order to serve more families with constantly improving tech and better care than ever before, we’ve doubled our mission-driven team this year. These new additions have deepened our expertise, expanded our ambition, and strengthened our community, and we continue to attract massively talented, dedicated professionals who share our commitment to transforming the world of compassionate care. 

Reinforcing the innovative spirit that drives us, this year saw the exciting expansion of our NYC headquarters with the opening of a new office in Flatiron (come say hi if you’re in the neighborhood!), and four memorable days of enjoyment and essential team building at our first global retreat, held in the beautiful Italian countryside. We’re so proud of this team and excited to see what 2025 brings for this incomparable group of compassion warriors!

Extending Our Support

This fall, we launched LifeVault, our second major product offering, which complements our Loss Companion app. Through LifeVault, we’ve extended our support to families in the critical phase before loss, helping them create, update, and share essential documents like wills, power of attorney, healthcare directives and more. 

LifeVault represents another huge leap forward in our mission to make sure everyone has the tools, advice, and support they need when it comes to life’s biggest challenges. We designed this comprehensive solution with our insurance partners to make legacy planning accessible to millions of Americans, giving families the tools they need to prepare for whatever lies ahead—as well as all-important peace of mind that everything will be taken care of if the unexpected comes to pass.

Looking Ahead: Expanding Our Vision of Care

The launch of this pre-need estate planning solution alongside our flagship at-need loss companion marks the start of something much bigger.

It’s all about guiding families through the heartbreak of changes they didn’t want, offering strength when it’s hardest to find, and helping them move forward with dignity, hope, and empowerment. This evolution reflects our deep understanding that families need compassionate, practical support through all of the changes and challenging circumstances that life brings.

The increasing adoption of Empathy by major employers and leading insurers reflects our reason for existence: Families need and deserve better support during these challenging moments. Our human-centered platform will continue to prove that practical, compassionate support can be both scalable and deeply personal.

In short, it has been a year of intense growth and innovation here at Empathy. The world is a complicated place right now, but our tremendously resourceful and determined team weathered its challenges with grace and grit, driving huge successes and bringing us ever closer to our goal of transforming the way the world deals with life’s unexpected changes. 

To our partners who trust us, our team who powers this mission, and most importantly, to every family who has allowed us to be part of their journey: thank you. Together, we’re not just creating a new standard for support—we’re building a movement of care and a more compassionate economy. We’re so glad to have you along with us on this journey, and cannot wait to show you what we have in store for 2025.