Farewill raises £20m to "significantly broaden” its funeral offering

From wills to cremations and beyond.

Just five months after its first foray into the world of direct cremations, online will-writing firm Farewill has raised an additional £20m and is working on a big push into the funeral industry.

“We're already the third or fourth biggest funeral provider in the UK,” CEO and co-founder Dan Garett told AltFi.

“And we're gonna significantly broaden out the types of funeral rules that we offer, which is really exciting.”

His comments came as the startup closed its latest funding round, led by new investor Highland Europe and supported by existing backers including Augmentum Fintech, bringing its total funding raised to £30m.

Highland Europe partner and former Photobox CEO Stan Laurent called Farewill “an extraordinary blend of compassion and tech-fueled efficiency.”

“For too long, the wills and funeral industry has been largely geared towards profit over purpose. Since our first meeting with Dan, we knew that Farewill had the ingredients to radically disrupt the industry. We’re excited to back them as they broaden their ambition.”

Farewill has been on a tear these last few months, since launching direct cremations in February it’s also opened up a telephone will writing services—"opening up our market and to 70, 80, and 90 year olds, I think our oldest customers 106 years old now”—and is in the process of launching Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for its customers.

“Our pitch for why we wanted to raise the money was incredibly clear, first and foremost it’s to carry on launching-industry leading products while building the most exceptional level of customer experience,” Garett told AltFi.

The latest funding round came together in record time, after Garett pitched a new round to the board at the start of the year he began fundraising in earnest in mid-March, entered due diligence with “almost 30 funds” and by mid-April had a term sheet signed.

Even more impressively, Garett and Laurent have yet to meet in-person, with the entirety of the deal completed remotely, from start to finish, due to the Covid-19 restrictions on meetings.