Betterleave builds centralized support network to narrow end-of-life care gap

This startup connects you with experts who know what to say and what to do

The aftermath of a death in the family can be tough to navigate – a loss is something we just don’t prepare for, and dealing with all the legalities while maintaining mental well-being can be painful. Thankfully, there are now technology-powered solutions helping to cope with grief and paving stepping stones along the way. Such is Betterleave, built on the belief that better death care is possible.

Betterleave recently raised $2.4 million in a round led by Chingona Ventures, a Chicago-based VC firm investing in pre-seed female tech, as well as fintech and health and wellness startups. Other participants were Bread and Butter Ventures in Minneapolis, Vitalize VC with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, Wisdom Ventures Fund in San Francisco, Fort Worth-based women’s health investor Coyote Ventures, and AARP.

Positioning itself as a one-stop digital health platform covering the whole spectrum of bereavement services, Betterleave offers help for navigating through various types of grief, including the loss of a family member, miscarriage, losing a pet, anticipatory grief, and divorce. The Austin-based startup aims to centralize bereavement care and making it easily accessible, narrow that grief care while delivering better clinical outcomes and lowering costs in the space.

Betterleave services individuals, connecting them with grief care professionals – and organizations, offering employee grief care programs. For hospices, which are required to provide bereavement support for 13 months following a loss, the company helps organize support plans.

Mental health help with Betterleave comes in the form of licensed therapists, grief support groups, family counseling, as well as wellness, doula, and spiritual services. Help with the logistics comes in the form of funeral planning and budgeting tools, as well as communicating the loss to others.

Launched in March 2022, Betterleave today provides bereavement services to industries across the board. Among its customers today are companies in the fintech space like Affirm and Amplify Credit Union, lumber retailer Interfor, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, and others.

Betterleave is now in-network with insurance providers Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Medicare, Optum, and Oscar.

Individuals can access Betterleave’s platform nationwide, but most of the company’s partners are located in Texas. The new capital will help the startup expand to 12 additional states, as well as boost its technology development, according to a Hospice News report. Specifically, Betterleave hopes to revamp its platform with analytics that would allow its clients to view the impact of bereavement programs, tracking user engagement, well-being, and other factors.

Cara McCarty Abbott, founder and CEO of Betterleave, met the challenges of grief firsthand upon her mother’s passing from terminal cancer. "Grief is complex and has a broad impact across a person's life,” she said in a statement last week. “It's long past time that we shine a light on the mental health care gap in the workplace, so drawing from my background as an HR leader, I founded Betterleave to address the burdens that grieving individuals face, both before and after loss.”

Images: Betterleave