As the coronavirus continues to uproot our lives and alter societal norms, many American funerals look different than they did pre-pandemic. Often, family members can't travel to their loved one's funeral, and in some cases, memorials are postposed or canceled all together. But LifeWeb 360, a Chicago startup that’s helping family and friends digitally honor their loved ones after they’ve passed, is proving to be a helpful tool for those planning virtual funerals amid the pandemic.
The startup, founded in 2019 by Ali Briggs and Rachele Louis, is an online platform that allows users to create memory pages to honor someone who recently died. These memory pages can be created by family, friends and coworkers of a recently deceased person, and share it with all the other people in their life.
The idea is for people to share photos, videos and written messages that celebrate and honor their loved one, and viewers are encouraged to comment on items. LifeWeb’s platform then organizes them to create context and meaning, and each page can be shared on social media and via email with specific privacy settings.
“It has found a home with so many different types of communities,” Briggs said.
LifeWeb pages are free and the memories collected stay online forever, but users are prompted to pay a fee to continue collecting memories after an initial three-month window, starting at $35 a year. LifeWeb 360 also provides a service that turns the digital memory pages into personalized, physical scrap books starting at $100.
“It’s more like art than social media in a lot of ways,” Briggs said.
LifeWeb 360 was one of six Black-founded Chicago startups that recently received a grant from Google. 4Degrees, an artificial intelligence startup working to help people better leverage their professional network, and GoLogic, a delivery SaaS platform, were also awarded grants.
Since the onset of the pandemic, LifeWeb 360 has seen more people use its platform as they plan virtual funerals. Since mid-March, the startup has seen a 300% increase in usage, Briggs said.
Much of the increase in business can be attributed to families being unable to host traditional, in-person funerals during the pandemic. And as people try to honor their lost loved ones remotely, LifeWeb 360 has proved useful as an online platform to facilitate it. Several memory pages created this year have been for people who died of Covid-19, Briggs added. The startup also provides users with information on how to host virtual funerals.
“We saw a big increase in volume as people were turning to LifeWeb and proactively finding ways to bring their community together,” Briggs said. “It’s been fascinating to see how creative people are at this time.”
Beyond the pandemic and as cremations become more common than traditional burials, LifeWeb 360 says it can help fill the gap of a cemetery headstone by giving surviving family and friends somewhere to “visit” their loved one—even if it's online.
Besides the Google grant, LifeWeb 360 has raised a small friends and family round to propel its growth. And earlier this year, the startup was one of 10 women-led startups in 1871’s WISTEM accelerator.
“We’re very excited about our growth prospects,” Briggs said.
