Bereavement care platform brings in $2.4m to help employers support grieving employees

Austin-based bereavement support platform Betterleave raised $2.4 million in seed funding this month. The platform provides bereavement support focusing on grief and mental health and offers logistical and support services to help individuals navigate loss as it’s happening.

The platform, which launched in 2022, also specializes in other types of grief besides the death of a loved one, including pregnancy loss, pet loss, and relationship loss.

“I didn’t realize how impactful and significant the life and bereavement process was until my mom was diagnosed with a terminal cancer,” Betterleave founder and CEO Cara McCarty Abbott told HR Brew.

The former HR leader, who designed “health, wealth, and happiness” programs for employees, said her experience helping her mother navigate her end-of-life journey and the toll it took on her own mental health inspired the founding of the platform, which brings both logistical and administrative tools and mental health and grief support services together in one place.

“You should be able to, in one platform, get accessible, relevant, culturally competent care, within a matter of clicks, instead of having to cobble around, Google everything, call a bunch of local community groups,” she said.

Chingona Ventures led the funding round in which Bread and Butter Ventures, Vitalize VC, Wisdom Ventures Fund, Coyote Ventures, and AARP also participated. Fintech company Affirm and logistics company Spot are among the employer customers Betterleave boasts across industries including tech, manufacturing, education, and finance, because “grief and loss is universal. It does not discriminate based on what your job is, or where you work, or your income level, or your age.”

With the new backing, Abbott said the company is looking to expand its services to employers to help them create “best in class bereavement programs.” The company plans to double or triple its geographic reach in the coming year.

Zoom out. Betterleave aims to address the growing needs of an aging population and the increased number of employees caring for adults, pointing to the 30 million unpaid caregivers who also balance those care duties with other paid work.

“We have this employee population…30 million caregivers. That’s the largest employee population that employers are dealing with, and a third of those caregivers are caregiving for sick or end-of-life or terminal individuals,” she said.

HR Brew reported in September on the growing push for expanded bereavement leave in corporate America. A 2023 survey by insurance broker NFP found 57% of employers surveyed offered three days of bereavement leave, while 18% offered five days.

“The more that you can proactively support people in their most challenging moments, that really is a defining moment for an employer. It can make or break if somebody wants to work there,” Abbott said. “It’s not just a ‘nice to have’; it’s a ‘need to have’ if you want to retain that employee.”