Q3 Featured Founder | Recompose
1 of the Top 10 New Majority founders currently fundraising from YOU this quarter
Hello New Majority Investor Circle! Welcome to Q3!
🎇 Happy 4th of July! 🎇 One of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, was credited amongst many things with coining the phrase “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Turns out, he might not have been the first to say this, but alas, our first Q3 Featured Founder has quite a large TAM based on this certainty.
Recompose
First, some context:
Everyone will die. 😕 ⚰️
But what happens to our bodies after we die? 🤨
☠️ ⚰️ The funeral / cremation 🔥 industry (yes this is a booming industry) accounts for about 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually aka Death Has a Climate Change Problem
💰 Not to mention overcrowded cemeteries is leading to expensive burial plots that you have to COMPETE for. Not what you or your family wants to deal with.
If the above didn’t resonate, this company is for the below persona:
You are the crunchy friend who:
♻️ is an avid recycler, composter, and key member of the local Buy Nothing group. 🌎
Tell me more
🌱 If you're looking for a greener way to die, then human composting might be for you! 🌱
Recompose is a first company that provides a sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional burial and cremation methods. Recompose's approach is considered to be more eco-friendly compared to traditional methods that can negatively impact the environment.
The details
Industry: funeral & tech & hardware
Impact: Climate action (SDG 13) 🌎
Team Diversity: Female founder identifying as LGBTQ
HQ: Seattle, WA
Company size: 19
Year founded: 2017
Key investors:
Lead investor for equity crowdfunding round is Jill Kaminsky.
Raised $17M without venture capital - looking for long-term investors aligned with their values and mission
Investment type: Preferred Stock via an SPV
$4.71 / share
Deadline: TBA
Investor Perks: Ranges from Q&A session and Recompose swag to a private tour and dinner with the Recompose founder & team.
Early traction:
🛖 Established locations in Seattle with operations in Denver and successful legalization efforts in Oregon, California, New York, Vermont and Nevada 📜
💰 $1.6M revenue in first 2 years of operation, projecting $1.48M this year
B2C and B2B:
B2C: Green Funeral Services ($7K/service) and Precompose Prepayment Plan ($100 - 500/month)
Precompose launched in 2020 and has over 1,300 Precompose members representing over $7.6M in future revenue
⚖️ B2B: Green Funeral Technology Licensing (patent pending)
Founding team
Katrina Spade: queer female CEO & Founder, prev. at Founder and Director of Urban Death Project, developed and legalized human composting, Echoing Green and Ashoka Fellow.
Marlene Bailey: Capital Projects Director
Jacki Myers: Director of Natural Organic Reduction (NOR), experienced mechanical engineering and human composting systems expert with QA/QC background.
Due diligence
Pros:
✍️ Leading subject matter experts successfully creating human composting policy that has paved the way for Recompose as well as their competitors with notable mentions in the NYT, LA Times, Forbes, and NPR.
💪 Strong leadership team and board of advisors with industry expertise in design, end of life planning, soil science, and funeral law
⚰️ Large non-cyclical market with the funeral industry valued at $20B in the US
🌱 Sustainable: composting helps reduce the carbon footprint from traditional burial and cremation.
Potential risks:
🌳💧🌲 Growing industry with competing alternative death care options that also reduce carbon emissions, including green burials, aquamation, etc.
💵 A bit pricey: Recompose is cheaper than burial, but 2.5x expensive than cremation.
📜 Natural organic reduction is only legal in 7 states (WA, CA, OR, VT, CO, NV, and NY) with no guarantee state or federal legislatures will follow, potentially limiting Recompose's ability to operate and market size.
❌ Consumer perception might not embrace human composting limiting Recompose's market.
Competitors
Return Home: uses the Terramation process to provide human composting services which cost $4,950. Return Home is based in Auburn, Wash., but serves people in all 50 states and Canada, passionate about legalizing human composting widely.
Earth: offers natural organic reduction only in Pacific Northwest, usually cost $5k-6k.
Why Recompose: Recompose is led by a passionate and pioneering founder, backed by a team of subject matter experts who are developing and legalizing human composting. They are transforming the funeral industry by converting human remains into soil through a unique process that accelerates natural decomposition as a sustainable alternative to traditional burial or cremation. With B2B and B2C options, they’re diversifying revenue streams that will enable them to scale faster rather than the traditional funeral home approach.