Is Eterneva Austin’s most interesting startup? ‘Deathcare’ is big, untapped business — Austin Business Journal

Austin’s Eterneva Inc. has been there for customers and funeral homes alike as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced people the world over to grieve and mourn differently.

For example, the company, which transforms the remains of deceased loved ones and pets into diamonds, announced in May it would freely digitize all arrangement materials for funeral homes in fewer than three days. Co-founder and CEO Adelle Archer described the offering as a “supportive effort to our partner community.”

Eterneva also has developed an inclusive eight-month journey that brings customers along each step as their loved ones become diamonds — an experience that Archer and her colleagues constantly are improving. Among the current efforts is a campaign to “further elevate the branding, photography, videography and storytelling to allow every single update to be truly beautiful and something you’d feel compelled to share socially with your community,” she said.

Archer — who pegs her company as being on “the precipice of hockey-stick growth” — also said Eterneva is developing more experiential interactions with customers, allowing for in-person lab tours, for instance. Eterneva in March 2020 introduced dedication pages so customers could more easily share on social media or elsewhere significant milestones in the diamond-making process.

As Americans seek more effective methods to cope with loss, Eterneva offers one that could be helpful.

“We’re finding people are using the [memorial] diamonds as anchors for their grief,” said Candi Cann, a professor of religion at Baylor University, who has researched death and dying. She has done grief research for Eterneva.

Diamonds are “palatable, portable” items that may serve as grief anchor objects — burial sites are another kind — Cann said.

Rabbi Neil Blumofe, who leads the conservative North Austin Jewish community Agudas Achim, said the community Archer is forming around questions of mortality, “and the associated questions of purpose and meaning,” is “an extraordinary thing” and is akin to a church.

The company grows its diamonds at its headquarters at 4115 Freidrich Lane in South Austin, where it currently operates one diamond machine, as well as in Germany and Switzerland, Archer said. The diamonds take about two months to grow.

Two more machines are scheduled to arrive at the Eterneva HQ this quarter. Two machines operate at the company’s Switzerland facility for research and development purposes. The company is ordering six more machines this quarter. By the end of next year, Eterneva plans to have 15 diamond machines.

Archer said Eterneva’s current space is enough for now. Except for the operations team, most of the company’s 25 employees will continue to work from home until this year’s third quarter.

But Eterneva plans this quarter to open in the Hill Country town of Kerrville a 5,000-square-foot research and development and jewelry facility. There, the company will bring its jewelry and stone-setting operations in-house. Rob Irvin of Realty Executives in Kerrville served as the commercial real estate broker.

And, at the beginning of 2022, Eterneva plans to move into a 30,000-square-foot diamond-growth facility.

Archer and fellow co-founder Garrett Ozar launched Eterneva in 2017. They gained some national exposure with an October 2019 appearance on TV show “Shark Tank,” where they agreed to a $600,000 deal with Mark Cuban.

Archer expects staff size to grow to 35 by the end of this year, and mushroom to 80 next year. Key executive-team hires on the horizon include a vice president of finance and a vice president of grief.

The latter position, the CEO said, will “provide true in-house expertise” for a company Archer wants to be a leader in grief wellness. On a practical level, that person’s knowledge will inform how Eterneva helps its customers through the mourning process.

Significant C-suite additions during last year’s fourth quarter comprised President and Chief Commercial Officer Michael Jewart, Vice President of Marketing David Sweet and Vice President of Operations Rob Kranenburg.

The company to date has raised a total of $6.7 million. Archer said the business recently closed an oversubscribed $2 million “insider bridge” round. Next month, Eterneva will begin raising a $10 million series A round.

The next investment “will be raised around some very major and exciting inflection points for our B2B2C go-to-market strategy — we are on the precipice of hockey-stick growth through massive channel distribution,” Archer said. “We are partnering with some of the largest enterprise players in the death-care space.” Archer promised announcements on that front soon.

Funeral homes now “are a major enterprise segment” and “a huge distribution channel for us,” Archer said. They represent about 16% of the company’s customer acquisitions. “By next year, we expect that to be north of 50%.”

Eterneva is partnering with funeral homes at 120 locations throughout the United States and Canada. “By the end of the year, we’ll have 1,000 locations,” she said.

Customers of funeral home partners may choose memorializing their loved one through an Eterneva diamond, in addition to traditional burial and cremation offerings. Funeral homes send a half-cup of ashes or hair to the company. Eterneva pays the funeral home a commission.

Archer said that “there is a very real motivation for funeral homes to work with us” due to a shifting preference to cremations instead of burials. Data from the Wisconsin-based National Funeral Directors Association shows in 2010, 53% of Americans were buried, while 40% were cremated. By last year, cremation had become the more popular option at 56%, with burial coming at nearly 38%. The organization projects by 2040, 78% will be cremated and 16% will be buried.

That trend has pushed average order value down 50% at funeral homes since 2008, Archer said.

Funeral homes “are in need of innovative products and experiences like Eterneva,” in part to “connect with younger generations,” she said.

An indication of the traction that the startup has gained with younger generations is the success of its TikTok videos, which Eterneva began producing last year.

The company posted four videos in the past three months with between 1 million and 7 million organic views — totals Archer said surpassed household brands such as Nike and Disney. Beyond that, she said, “each video yielded two times our Shark Tank leads.”

Eterneva is not yet profitable. It has served 800 customers and grown 1,100 diamonds to date. Customers include Austin entrepreneurs Leon and Tiffany Chen, co-founders of warm-cookie delivery company Tiff’s Treats, and Jay B. Sauceda, founder of e-commerce fulfillment company Sauceda Industries.

“ Leon Chen surprised his wife, Tiff, on her birthday with a diamond from their pup Buster’s ashes,” Archer said.

Sauceda made a diamond from his former dog, a corgi named Carl. “They have a beautiful video of them coming into the lab and starting Carl’s diamond machine with us,” Archer said.

Archer declined to share specific revenue figures, but said the company is “growing at triple digits. We’re currently in the mid-seven figures in revenue.”

Future plans for the company including it becoming “the first globally recognized brand in deathcare — there’s no question we’re poised to be one of the first modern unicorns in the category,” Archer said.

Originally published at https://www.bizjournals.com.