Melbourne-based Restify was born out of “our family’s lived experience of losing our father-in-law suddenly and the struggles we faced during that time,” says co-founder Devipriya Selvaraj, who started the company with her husband Karthikeyan Viswanathan.

On Wednesday evening in Melbourne, Restify was one of five start-ups taking part in the competition SmartCompanyCompetition for early stage startups, Pitch.

In a room full of startup founders and investors, Restify presented its idea to an esteemed panel of judges, including Maxine Lee, COO of Skalata VC; Mark Newman, head of startup programs at LaunchVic; Sarah Green, co-founder of Protagonist Capital; and William Hasko, director of small business marketing at Dell Technologies in Australia, India, and Japan.

The grand prize of the competition was that the winner, home design startup Oltre, received a tech equipment package worth $10,000 and access to the Dell Technologies and Dell For Startups mentoring program.

Selvaraj, a project manager at Infosys and co-founder of BibVault, says the company is building an end-of-life management platform for first-generation immigrants that helps families get through the toughest times with compassionate end-of-life education, human connections, and support.

The Restify platform aims to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as save time and money for families.

“It acts as a one-stop shop, offering support in all aspects of death-related matters, including planning a will, arranging a funeral, communicating with other loved ones and emotional support for the family,” Selvaraj says. SmartCompany.

The second-time founder is advised by a research team on death technologies at the University of Melbourne.

“We want to break the stereotype associated with death and provide families with security for the future by preparing them for the worst that life can throw at them,” says Selvaraj.

In their own experience, the Restify team found that after the death of a loved one, there were over 16 different touchpoints that required the team to spend over 18 hours resolving them – from contacting emergency services, to documentation, and more.

Speaking about the market for Restify’s offering, Selvaraj points to the growing immigrant population in the country.

“Because Australia is a multicultural country and more than 50% of the population is immigrants, we estimate that there are about 3.5 million families in Australia,” he says.

The software for the Restify platform is in development and Selvaraj expects the beta version to be available by the end of the year in November.

However, there is already a long waiting list for the startup’s product.

“We’re currently in a problem-to-solution match mode, and we have a waiting list of over 250 families and it’s growing every day. We’re also working with different community leaders and funeral directors,” Restify says of the next steps as it prepares for launch.

Restify recently won the 2024 Wynnovation Pitch Festival, a startup competition organized by the Wyndham City Council, where the startup took home $10,000.

Are you ready to pitch to a panel of leading VCs and startup founders? Apps for Field are now open for Sydney!

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