Grief touches everyone — each year, 6 million deaths occur annually across the EU and a further 16 million in the developed world. Beyond the emotional toll, families often face overwhelming logistical burdens. Willow Stories, an Austrian startup, is reimagining grief support and legacy preservation.
Founded in 2024 by Patricia Klimek, Steven Henty, and Adam Fischer, Willow Stories uses generative AI to help families create lasting digital memoirs and process their grief. Motivated by personal experiences with loss, the team seeks to leverage technology to meet deep human needs.
Willow offers AI-driven grief support and legacy preservation to help families manage the complexities of grief with care and support. As a B2B and B2C legacy-tech startup, Willow partners with funeral homes and insurers to create a special space for tribute and remembrance for families.
The round was led by Fund F, also joined by Angel Invest, PurposeTech, and a group of angel investors. Fund F is a Vienna-based venture capital fund that invests in pre-seed startups with gender-diverse founding teams in ClimateTech, FemTech, HealthTech, FinTech, and HR Tech. Prague-based PurposeTech has previously announced the closure for its first pre-seed fund to support Central and Eastern European founders focusing on health, sustainability, and education.
“We’re excited to announce our investment in Willow, a startup leveraging generative AI to help families create digital memoirs that honor the legacies of their loved ones during times of profound loss” stated Fund F in a Linkedin post.
“While the need for end-of-life services is timeless, the ways we support grieving families have not evolved with the care and sensitivity they deserve,” said Zdenek Fred Fous, General Partner at PurposeTech. “We believe Willow has the vision and heart to reimagine this experience — blending compassion, personalization, and technology to honor each life with dignity and to ease one of life’s most difficult journeys.”
The mental health impact of grief is severe: 40% of the bereaved meet the criteria for major depression. Willow’s platform, already partnering with some of Europe’s largest funeral home operators, offers families meaningful ways to honor and remember their loved ones.
Willow will use the fresh capital to continue to transform the future of grief support and legacy preservation.
