Glasgow tech start-up attracts £3.6m to disrupt bereavement process

A Glasgow-based technology business has secured significant seven-figure funding to revolutionise the bereavement process.

Glasgow-headquartered Exizent was founded by Nick Cousins and Aleks Tomczyk and is looking to revolutionise the bereavement process.

Exizent has raised £3.6 million as it looks to transform the way the legal and financial services industry deals with bereavement and make the process less stressful for family members experiencing loss.

The firm claims to have built the first ever platform that connects data, services and the network of people involved when someone passes away. It aims to “reduce the uncertainty, increase speed and make the process far simpler for everyone involved”.

The £3.6m has been raised from several investors including FNZ, the financial technology firm which was founded in New Zealand in 2004 and expanded into Scotland just a year later.

Exizent was founded by Nick Cousins and Aleks Tomczyk. Both have track records of building successful products and businesses, with Tomczyk having formerly been founder and chief executive of boutique consultancy Arum, while Cousins was previously chief product owner of Barclays Wealth and Investments division.

Cousins said: “Our personal experiences are what led to us to establish Exizent. We believe the administrative tasks facing families after the death of a loved one should be far easier, and that modern technology solutions and services can make this a reality.

“We have spent the last 18 months carefully designing, developing, and testing our product with innovative partners, and look forward to launching the platform to legal services professionals later this year.”

Adrian Durham, group chief executive of FNZ, said: “The Exizent team has already achieved an enormous amount and we are proud to support their vision of leveraging technology to make the bereavement process far easier for everyone involved. Exizent will also be joining the fast growing FNZ OpenPlatform app store.”

The company’s platform will begin by helping legal services firms, working for executors, efficiently managing the process of completing and submitting probate applications, or confirmation as it is known in Scotland. It also promises to make the process of gathering information about an estate easier by connecting third parties to automatically discover assets the person may have had, reducing the reliance on an executor to find and send physical documents.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director