Montreal’s ClearEstate has secured a USD $13.25 million Series A funding round led by a prominent Canadian institutional investor OMERS Ventures.
ClearEstate is a platform that supports executors and planners by streamlining tasks and professional services related to estate planning and settlement.
Created in 2020 following co-founder Alexandre Gauthier’s challenges settling his own late mother’s estate, the Montreal-based startup with offices in Ontario, California and Texas is now supported by some of Canada’s most credible investors, including Diagram Ventures, Torstar, Triangle Capital and NAVentures, the venture capital arm of the National Bank of Canada.
ClearEstate is a family finance hub that can save executors approximately 120 hours of their time and $8,500 in fees. An average North American estate settlement will cost families about $10,000. Adding to the burden is the probate process upon the death of a family member, which is most complex for the executor. They are responsible for completing a series of mandatory administrative tasks that Gauthier has described as “being audited by the IRS every month for 18 months,” the typical length of the process.
Despite the daunting tasks, new polling data from Maru Public Opinion for ClearEstate suggests about nine in ten North American adults appoint a person close to the family as estate executor.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans polled (63%) described the loss of an immediate family member as one of life’s most difficult challenges, disrupting their personal and professional lives; among those appointed executors, nearly three-quarters (74%) agreed. This is where ClearEstate steps in.
With robust expansion plans throughout Canada and in the four most populous US states (California, New York, Texas and Florida), ClearEstate is growing its all-in-one estate asset management suite.
Following this latest fundraise, ClearEstate’s growth trajectory will focus on extensive recruitment in both the US and Canada, as the company seeks empathetic, diligent and forward-thinking software engineers, full-stack web developers, estate professionals, and web sales and marketing specialists. All roles are expected to be remote.
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