Death Tech: A New Niche for Startups

Fintech, medtech, and edtech have quickly become part of our daily lives. Today, many startups are being created in these sectors, and the level of competition and barriers to entry in the industry are rising. However, technological progress continues to penetrate other aspects of our lives, and it is time to pay attention to new niches.Today, we will tell you about one of the options for creating a unique startup: Death Tech. Interest in Death Tech has intensified since the beginning of the pandemic. The reasons are obvious: rising mortality rates, the need for remote and quick access to funeral services, and bans on holding events with large numbers of attendees, including funerals. This industry includes two directions: the implementation of technologies in the funeral sector and achieving digital immortality through innovations that preserve a person's personality on electronic media.[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="527"] Source: N6AQ[/caption] Startups in the funeral sectorThe funeral industry has hardly been touched by digitalization, is rife with violations, and is very expensive. In the US, the market is valued at approximately $30 billion. Let's look at some of the Death Tech startups that are already disrupting the traditional market and providing both psychological and practical assistance to the bereaved.

1. Untangle - an online community offering practical, emotional, and social support for those who have lost loved ones.
2.  Once I'm Gone - a platform where you can plan your own funeral and upload information that will be needed by loved ones in the event of your death (documents, videos, etc.).
3. Farewill - a platform for creating a legally binding electronic will and a system for organizing your finances. Farewill also offers a "direct cremation" service, where ashes are delivered directly to the address of a loved one, which is 75% cheaper than traditional funerals. During the pandemic, demand for Farewill's services grew fourfold. In the first half of 2020, the startup raised $25 million in a funding round.
4. Guardian Angel also provides will-writing services. The startup's distinctive feature is its online grief support centers, where families can create personal memorial pages. Users can log in to make online donations and share photos, memories, and to-do lists before and after the funeral. Since the start of the epidemic, their website traffic has increased by 500%.
5. Vivo Recuerdo creates memorial software. The company installs screens that broadcast memorial services, photos, and messages sent by loved ones.

Digital ImmortalityThe second direction of Death Tech evokes mixed opinions regarding its ethics. However, it is worth remembering that humans have always tried to preserve memories of themselves or their loved ones through literary and musical works, paintings, photos, and videos. Technology has simply allowed us to take a step further: by copying a person's speech, appearance, facial expressions, and behavior, digital doubles of the deceased are now created, achieving digital immortality. To create a digital double of the deceased, various options are used:

1. Robots. Based on information obtained about a person during their lifetime, an exact robotic copy can be created with advanced AI that remembers the person's facial expressions, movements, and character. This service is provided by the company Promobot, which initially specialized in companion robots for business and for training medical professionals.
2. Digital Double - a copy of a person's personality. The double is formed during the person's lifetime, based on a snapshot of their actions in the digital environment, and lives in parallel with the "biological original." After death, the double acts as a chatbot of the deceased. This idea was brought to life by developers from the startup Luka. The company Digital Doubles is actively working on the AI-based technology.
3. Digital Avatars copy not only the person's communication style but also their appearance, using one or two of their photos, along with voice synthesis.
4. VR was applied in South Korea, where a VR copy of a deceased girl was created, and a virtual meeting with her mother was organized.
5. DeepFake. The most popular example using DeepFake was a gift from Kanye West to his wife. He gave Kim Kardashian a talking hologram of her deceased father.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="527"] Source: Hacker Noon[/caption] The desire to achieve digital immortality is not approved by everyone; it is believed that digital copies will only serve as a painful reminder of loss. Religious representatives react sharply to this, believing that it is an interference in God's plan.Creators of Death Tech projects see nothing wrong with it — it is not a way to replace a person, but an opportunity to preserve memories of them. It is a form of therapy — a way to resolve unfinished issues and say goodbye to the deceased, although it is better to resort to this after working with a specialist. When communicating with a digital double, it is important to clearly know your goals and the point at which this communication should be stopped.Opportunities in KazakhstanDeath is a delicate topic that few people talk about, but it concerns everyone. Moreover, it is a profitable business. This industry is hardly regulated, and grieving relatives suffer even more. By rough estimates, the turnover of the ritual industry in Almaty is more than 2.5 billion tenge per year, but this figure does not reflect reality, as a large part of it is in the shadow sector.Death Tech startups are not only an relevant niche for Kazakhstani tech entrepreneurs but also a step towards moving the funeral industry out of the shadow sector, reducing the organizational and financial burden on relatives. Creating such startups is promising both at the regional level and in the global market. The Death Tech industry is just beginning to emerge, competition is still low, and therefore, barriers to entry are not high.Activities related to death are the largest consumer industry untouched by technology; previously, only 2% of the industry was online. The reason is not the lack of suitable technologies, but the fact that people do not want to interact with death. Nevertheless, it is a part of our lives, and if technology can alleviate society's suffering from the loss of loved ones, it is time to take advantage of it.