EOverview
Empathy provides bereavement support for families and organizations by combining human care with digital resources. It creates personalized Care Plans for families that cover urgent needs like grief support, probate navigation, and administrative help, with Care Managers offering round-the-clock guidance. Its product mix blends in-time human assistance with digital tools such as audio companions, meditations, breathing exercises, and expert content available anytime. It differentiates itself by pairing dedicated care management with scalable digital resources and by partnering with organizations to extend bereavement services to life-insurance beneficiaries; its goal is to ease the burden of loss by reducing stress and financial strain.
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About Empathy
Industries
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$162M
Headquarters
New York City, United States
Founded
2020
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Simplify's take
What believers are saying
- Securian Canada launched Loss Support on October 22, 2026 across PolicyMe policies.
- Empathy's 2026 Grief Tax report found 84% of employers plan bereavement expansion.
- LifeVault launched in the UK on August 5, 2026, extending addressable demand.
What critics are saying
- Empathy depends on insurers like MetLife, Securian, and Transamerica for distribution.
- Larger carriers can copy features and squeeze pricing once bereavement becomes standard.
- If AI grief tools trigger trust failures, regulators and employers will abandon the platform.
What makes Empathy unique
- Empathy bundles bereavement, estate planning, caregiving, and leave into one platform.
- It works with eight of the top 10 U.S. life insurers and 50 million people.
- Human Care Team plus purpose-built AI handles emotionally sensitive, high-friction life events.
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Funding
Total Funding
$162M
Above
Industry Average
Funded Over
4 Rounds
Industry standards
Company News
Securian Canada has partnered with Empathy, a technology company focused on life's hardest moments, to support life insurance beneficiaries after a death. Empathy is now included at no extra cost with all Securian Canada in-force and new individual life policies sold through PolicyMe. The service covers grief support, funeral planning, obituary writing, estate administration, and help closing accounts. Securian Canada's survey of 500 Canadians who lost an immediate family member found 54% took on administrative duties. Of those, 42% said settling affairs took longer than expected, and 36% found contacting multiple organisations hard. Also, 54% said such a service would make them more likely to buy a life policy from its provider. Empathy has raised $162 million from investors including Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Adams Street Partners.
Bereavement benefits emerge as a gap brokers can fill in 2026. Empathy's Grief Tax report finds 84% of employers plan to expand bereavement support in 2026. Bereavement is the one life event that no employee will avoid, but it remains among the most underdeveloped categories in US group benefits. New research from Empathy, a New York-based bereavement and family care platform, puts the gap in stark relief - and points directly to where benefits brokers should be focusing their next client conversation. Empathy's 2026 Workplace Benefits Report, titled The Grief Tax and developed in partnership with Censuswide, surveyed 4,001 employees and 1,502 employers across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom between December 8 and 18, 2025. The findings reveal a category at a clear inflection point with 95 percent of employees saying that bereavement-related benefits are valuable, and 84 percent of employers stating that they plan to expand them in 2026. Among C-suite leaders specifically, that figure rises to 91 percent. The challenge, according to Ron Gura, co-founder and chief executive officer of Empathy, is execution. Speaking to Insurance Business Benefits US, Gura drew a direct comparison to the trajectory of maternity leave as a life transition that left the catch-all employee assistance program (EAP) framework roughly a decade ago and became its own dedicated support category. He believes bereavement is at that same inflection point now. "Once in a while, pretty much once a decade, a family event, a family moment is leaving the 500 EAP list," Gura said. "Ten years ago, that was maternity that left the EAP and said, 'We're too important for this list.'" The operational reality underlying that argument is significant. Empathy's research quantifies what being named an executor or next of kin actually means in practice: an average of 500 hours of administrative work, out-of-pocket costs, and approximately 18 months to wind down a loved one's affairs, all while an employee is simultaneously grieving and managing their regular workload. The Empathy report describes this burden as "The Grief Tax." Today, the platform covers more than 45 million people across North America, working with eight of the top 10 US life insurance carriers and hundreds of employers nationwide. The company raised $162 million in Series C funding, backed by Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Adams Street Partners, to scale the category and expand into adjacent life moments including caregiving and estate planning. Where the alignment gap creates broker opportunity. The report identifies a persistent disconnect between what employers invest in benefits and whether those benefits actually meet employee needs. Sixty percent of employers believe their benefits are only somewhat or not at all aligned with employee needs and 52 percent of employees agree. The misalignment is sharpest at the management level with C-suite executives 1.5 times more likely than middle managers to report full alignment, while more than 64 percent of senior and middle managers say benefits are only somewhat aligned. That gap has direct implications for bereavement specifically. One in five employers identifies bereavement and grief support as among the biggest unmet needs in their current benefits offering. Most organizations, the report concludes, lack the knowledge, infrastructure, or strategy to act on what is an increasingly clear employee demand. The activation mechanics of bereavement benefits make this a particularly tractable problem for brokers to solve. Unlike many voluntary benefits, bereavement leave creates a built-in trigger. "The employee is not coming to work - that's the first call you do before the funeral director, before the aunt," Gura said. "Now you have that ledger. This is when a digital resource is sending you a text message: sorry for your loss, we're not going anywhere." That notification moment, he says, drives activation rates that most voluntary benefits cannot match because the employee has already self-identified their need. The ROI case for life-event benefits. The report's ROI data gives brokers a concrete business case to bring to employer clients. Among employees whose organizations provide strong life-event support, 82 percent say they would feel their employer truly cares, 81 percent say they would be more likely to stay, 79 percent would recommend their employer, and 78 percent report it would boost their motivation and engagement. Gura frames bereavement benefits as fundamentally a retention play, distinct from the high-frequency perks that drive recruitment. "The infrequent is about retaining top talent that will never forget how this company treated them truly as they would treat their own family during these big moments," he said. Jay Kaduson, chief executive officer of Workplace Solutions at Voya Financial, New York, reinforced that positioning in the report. "Life insurance has long played a critical role at moments of loss, but the future of benefits lies in extending care beyond a single point in time," Kaduson said. "By including funeral and estate planning and bereavement support in their benefits package, employers are able to demonstrate a deep, tangible commitment to caring for their people before, during and after life's hardest moments." For brokers and consultants advising employer clients on 2026 plan design, the Empathy data offers a clear entry point. Eighty percent of employers expect their overall benefits budget to increase from 2025 to 2026 but more than half anticipate only slight growth, and employers are increasingly demanding proof of measurable impact before committing spend. Forty-four percent say a cost-benefit analysis is the primary way they justify life-event benefits investment, followed by competitive benchmarks at 33 percent and peer case studies at 28 percent. The broker conversation, Gura suggests, needs to reframe bereavement away from a compliance checkbox and toward a strategic retention and resilience tool that, unlike a gym membership or commuter benefit, employees will remember for the rest of their careers.
Empathy LifeVault is Launched in UK. The latest product expansion news from Empathy; Empathy, the technology company transforming how the world plans for and deals with life's hardest moments with AI and human care, has launched Empathy LifeVault(TM) in the UK, bringing its digital estate and legacy planning product to British families for the first time. Across its full range of products, Empathy is now available to 50 million people in the UK, US and Canada. LifeVault helps families prepare for the future both practically and emotionally by bringing the essential elements of estate planning together in one secure digital platform. Planning for the future goes beyond paperwork. Alongside its practical planning tools, LifeVault includes straightforward educational resources to help people understand their options and make informed decisions. The platform includes Conversations, a feature which helps families to navigate difficult conversations about their wishes, values and legacy with greater conviction via a private, AI-guided space. Alongside this, the Legacy Letters feature allows users to securely preserve the personal messages and memories that live outside legal documents. Through guided, step-by-step journeys, users are able to create and update legally valid documents, including wills, powers of attorney and funeral wishes, with guidance on signing, witnessing and registering them where appropriate. Users can also organise information about property, pensions, bank accounts, and other assets, and give trusted contacts permission to access these details when needed. Clare Dodd, UK General Manager at Empathy, said: "Planning for the future is one of the most important things Insurance Edge can do for the people Insurance Edge love, but too often Insurance Edge put these decisions off as they feel overwhelming, expensive and complicated. The result is that around two thirds of UK adults don't have a will, leaving many families unprepared for what comes next.* Yet taking the time to plan ahead can make a lasting difference to the people Insurance Edge leave behind. LifeVault is designed to remove those barriers, making legacy planning easier and more accessible, so people can prepare for the future with confidence, giving families greater clarity and certainty when it matters most." LifeVault has already built significant scale in North America, through partnerships with leading insurers, financial institutions and progressive employers including Kellanova, and New York Life Insurance. *Source: Empathy research with Censuswide between 29 January and 9 February 2026 among 6,001 consumers aged 35+ and 555 licensed financial advisers across the UK, US and Canada.
Empathy, a technology company using AI and human care for life's difficult moments, has expanded its platform with Caregiving Support. This follows the launch of Leave Support in partnership with MetLife last October. The expansion addresses America's care crisis, where over 63 million people serve as unpaid caregivers. Caregiving Support provides families with financial guidance, practical assistance for care decisions, and emotional support throughout extended care journeys. Leave Support, which helps employees navigate absence from work, has seen usage increase fivefold in its first three months. The platform now covers legacy planning, caregiving, disability leave, and loss. Empathy serves over 50 million policyholders across the US, Canada, and UK. The company has raised $162 million from investors including Index Ventures and General Catalyst.
Empathy expands platform with Caregiving Support. Empathy now offers a connected experience supporting families through legacy planning, leave of absence, caregiving, and loss NEW YORK - Empathy, the technology company transforming how the world plans for and deals with life's hardest moments with AI and human care, today announced the expansion of its platform with Empathy Caregiving Support(TM), following the launch... July 22, 2026 at 9:05 a.m. Empathy now offers a connected experience supporting families through legacy planning, leave of absence, caregiving, and loss NEW YORK - Empathy, the technology company transforming how the world plans for and deals with life's hardest moments with AI and human care, today announced the expansion of its platform with Empathy Caregiving Support(TM), following the launch of Empathy Leave Support(TM), designed to help families navigate the growing complexity of long-term care and employee leaves of absence. The expansion comes amid a rapidly escalating care crisis in the United States, driven by a rising aging population, increasing healthcare costs, and a shortage of professional caregivers. Now more than ever, millions of individuals are stepping into caregiving roles under compounded pressure, juggling care responsibilities alongside full-time work in a high cost-of-living environment. Many are also caring for aging parents while still raising children, often without adequate preparation for the emotional, logistical, and financial demands involved. Leave Support, and now Caregiving Support, builds on Empathy's comprehensive platform, which spans across legacy planning and loss. For insurance carriers, the expansion turns a static policy into a living benefit, one where support shows up across every life transition. For employers, it turns benefits into a genuine safety net: the kind that keeps employees engaged, supported, and committed throughout their tenure and the life moments that matter most. "Every family will face life's hardest moments. Our responsibility is to make sure they're never left to face them alone," said Ron Gura, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy. "Caregiving is no longer just a short-term or end-of-life event, a leave of absence is increasingly a long-running reality rather than a brief interruption. These life-changing moments demand coordination, guidance, and emotional support, not just for one person, but for entire families. With these additions to our platform, we're helping build a more resilient society, one where support is inclusive, expansive and financially sustainable. A stronger society isn't built by avoiding hardship. It's built by making sure people don't have to face hardship alone." The Caregiving Crisis: From Coverage to Care Today, more than 63[1] million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers, with caregiving lasting an average of 5.5 years. Although 70%[2] of Americans will need some form of long-term care, most families are underprepared for the sustained emotional, financial, and practical strain that caregiving brings. With caregiving, Empathy is extending its foundational model of pairing emotional support with practical, step-by-step guidance to one of the most demanding experiences families face. Empathy's platform takes a holistic approach, supporting millions of families across the full care journey by combining financial guidance with practical support for managing complex care decisions, coordinating family responsibilities, accessing recommended services and resources, and managing the emotional strain that often accompanies care. This integrated model reflects the lived reality of caregiving today, where families must simultaneously manage logistics, finances, and emotional strain over extended periods of time. Helping workers get back on their feet According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 2.6 million employees take a leave of absence from work any given week due to illness or injury. The complexities of leave, from filing claims to managing physical and mental healing, can be challenging, and without adequate support can result in longer recovery times and more missed workdays. Short-term disability insurance has become one of the most common ways employers fund and structure a leave of absence, making the quality of support during that period a critical lever for insurers, employers, and employees who are trying to get back on their feet. Empathy Leave Support, l aunched in partnership with MetLife last October, is designed to reduce the hidden costs of leave on employers by guiding employees through the emotional and practical challenges of taking a leave of absence from work. The intuitive, engaging experience supports employees throughout the entire leave journey, from initial planning through return-to-work. Leave Support helps employees establish daily routines and structure, reduce stress and increase well-being, streamline claim processing and facilitate return-to-work planning, and is supported by a dedicated Care Team. Since launch, Leave Support usage has grown rapidly month over month, increasing fivefold in its first three months. Redefining Expectations for Modern Care While Empathy Leave Support helps people return to work and life, Empathy Caregiving Support helps people navigate what may be a new normal. Combining AI with human care, Empathy provides an unparalleled experience for policyholders and a new standard of support for carriers, one where insurance plays a more active role throughout the broader care journey that life events require. Whether someone is planning their legacy, stepping into a caregiving role, taking a disability leave from work, or experiencing a loss, with Empathy, they can count on one platform and ecosystem of support. About Empathy Empathy is a leading technology company transforming how the world plans for and deals with life's hardest moments with AI and human care, serving more than 50 million policyholders across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Backed by $162 million from top-tier venture firms such as Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Adams Street Partners, and other leading funds, alongside strategic investments from global financial institutions, Empathy offers comprehensive, expert guidance through bereavement, estate management, legacy planning, caregiving, leaves of absence, and more. Recognized by Apple, Google Play, and Fast Company, Empathy pairs technology built for scale with the kind of care only people can give, redefining the standard for what modern support looks like. Learn more at empathy.com.
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About Empathy
Industries
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$162M
Headquarters
New York City, United States
Founded
2020
There are no jobs for Empathy right now.
Find jobs on Simplify and start your career today
We update Empathy's jobs every few hours, so check again soon!Browse all jobs