INDEX / DIRECTORY / EMPATHY

Empathy

Software & Cloud 71 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-08-08
BDS-1000 Score 352 /1000 D Tier D - Moderate
Military ↗ 0.01 Digital ↗ 0.15 Economic ↗ 5.01 Political ↗ 2.92

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Empathy - BDS-1000 Forensic Dossier

Key Findings

  • Economic: Empathy is an Israeli-founded, Tel Aviv-headquartered (jointly with New York) grief-tech/insurtech platform, legally constituted in Israel as “The Empathy Project Ltd,” with an active Rubinstein Tower R&D office and $162M raised across four rounds including Israeli VC participation (Aleph, Entrée Capital).1234
  • Political: Both co-founders have documented prior Israeli military service (Ron Gura, 1st Lieutenant, Israeli Air Force; Yonatan Bergman, an IDF-linked engineering role), carried as standard biography rather than marketing; CEO Ron Gura issued a personal (non-corporate) LinkedIn statement condemning the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.567
  • Digital: Empathy’s own privacy policy discloses that bereavement, estate, and insurance-claim data on a claimed 40–50 million individuals is processed in “the United States, Israel and other locations,” the only concrete digital-nexus datapoint identified.8
  • Not found: No public evidence of any Israeli military, defence, or security-sector contract, product, or surveillance relationship; no listing in any UN, Who Profits, PAX, AFSC, or Al-Haq occupation-business database.910111213

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameEmpathy (empathy.com); legally “The Empathy Project Ltd” (Israel) and “The Empathy Project Inc” (United States)
JurisdictionDual-domiciled: The Empathy Project Ltd incorporated in Israel (company no. 516223187, registered 2020-07-14, Tel Aviv); The Empathy Project Inc incorporated in the United States
HeadquartersDual headquarters - New York, NY (commercial) and Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (engineering/R&D, Rubinstein Tower, 21st floor)
SectorBereavement/estate-logistics SaaS and “grief-tech”/insurtech B2B2C software
OwnershipPrivately held, venture-backed; investors include General Catalyst, Aleph, Entrée Capital, Index Ventures, Adams Street Partners, LocalGlobe, Primetime Partners, Brewer Lane, SemperVirens, Latitude, LionTree, and strategic insurers (MetLife, New York Life, MassMutual, Securian, Sumitomo, Allianz, Munich Re, Citi Impact Fund, TIAA Ventures, Aflac Ventures) via the “Empathy Alliance”
Key Executives / GovernanceRon Gura (co-founder/CEO); Yonatan Bergman (co-founder/CTO); board/advisor figures Yael Wissner-Levy and Avi (Aviad) Eyal (Entrée Capital)
Israeli-Nexus SummaryIsraeli-founded and Israeli-R&D-based software company with founder military biography and cross-border data processing, but no identified military, surveillance, or occupation-territory nexus

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Empathy is a privately held, venture-funded bereavement- and estate-logistics software company, founded in 2021 (with its Israeli legal entity registered in 2020) by Ron Gura and Yonatan Bergman, both previously of The Gifts Project (acquired by eBay), PayPal, and WeWork.1823 The company operates a genuine dual-headquarters structure between New York and Tel Aviv, distributing its product to consumers primarily through partnerships with insurance carriers and employers across North America and, more recently, the UK.194 Its Israeli nexus is real but concentrated almost entirely in corporate geography and personnel: an active Tel Aviv engineering and R&D office, an Israeli legal entity, Israeli VC investors (Aleph, Entrée Capital), and two founders with prior Israeli military service documented in their professional biographies.20521

Across the four audited domains, no evidence surfaced of any military-sector activity. Empathy has no identified defence contract, dual-use product, weapons-adjacent supply relationship, or export-control history, and does not appear in the OHCHR settlement-business database, the Albanese report, PAX’s arms-financier list, AFSC Investigate, Al-Haq’s advocacy materials, or Who Profits.910111213 Its technology stack is generic commercial cloud and development tooling (React, AWS, Python), with no Israeli security-vendor dependencies and no facial-recognition, biometric, or surveillance capability of the kind associated with other Israeli technology exports.2223

The most substantive documented vector is economic: Empathy is an Israeli-founded, Israeli-R&D-anchored technology company that has raised $162M with participation from Israeli venture firms, and whose privacy policy confirms that sensitive bereavement and estate data is processed, in part, in Israel.84 A secondary, investor-level political datapoint was identified but not attributed to Empathy directly: Series A/B/C investor Entrée Capital’s managing partner, Avi Eyal, sits on the board of the Israeli volunteer emergency-response nonprofit Lev Echad and has stated he increased his defence-technology investment activity after the war began, and Entrée co-invested in an unrelated Israeli defence-technology firm (Traysar) - Entrée’s ownership stake in Empathy is not publicly disclosed, so this is flagged as an evidence gap rather than a confirmed direct-proximity finding.242526

What is not supported by the evidence is any form of military, security, or occupation-territory involvement: no contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF, or security services; no defence-prime supply relationships; no settlement operations; no state honors or “Brand Israel” participation; and no corporate lobbying or FIDF/JNF financial contributions.272829 The resulting BDS-1000 score of BRS 352 (Tier D - Moderate) reflects a company whose Israeli-nexus footprint is real and material on the economic axis (headquarters, R&D, funding, cross-border data processing) but negligible on the military and digital-security axes, with a moderate, largely biographical/personal political dimension.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
2020-07-14The Empathy Project Ltd incorporated in Israel, registered address in Tel Aviv.30
April 2021Empathy emerges from stealth with $13M seed funding, co-led by General Catalyst and Israeli VC firm Aleph.131
September–October 2021Series A, $30M, led by Entrée Capital (managing partner Avi Eyal), with General Catalyst, Aleph, LocalGlobe, and Primetime Partners; angel investors include Shai Wininger, Sir Ronald Cohen, John Kim, and Micha Kaufman.143233
October 7, 2023CEO Ron Gura posts a personal (non-corporate) LinkedIn statement condemning the Hamas attack and expressing solidarity with Israeli civilians.6
March 2024Series B, $47M, led by Index Ventures, with strategic investment from insurers Allianz, MassMutual, MetLife, New York Life, Securian, and Sumitomo.1519
2024Commercial partnership announced with Aflac to provide on-demand “Loss Support” to Aflac policyholders.34
May 2025Series C, $72M, led by Adams Street Partners; launch of the “Empathy Alliance” strategic-investor coalition; cumulative funding reaches $162M.4353
July 2, 2025UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese publishes A/HRC/59/23 (“From economy of occupation to economy of genocide”), naming over 60 companies; Empathy is not named.1213
September 2025UN OHCHR updates its settlement-business database to 158 enterprises; Empathy is not listed.910
2026Empathy named a sample vendor in Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Life Insurance.36

Corporate Overview

Empathy operates as a single consolidated business under two legal entities: “The Empathy Project Ltd” in Israel (Tel Aviv, active since July 2020) and “The Empathy Project Inc” in the United States.3028 The company has no disclosed parent company, being privately held and venture-funded, and no disclosed subsidiaries beyond this dual-entity structure.374 Its physical footprint comprises three offices - New York (commercial headquarters), Tel Aviv (engineering, product, and data R&D hub at Rubinstein Tower, roughly 1,100 sq. m, built out in 2022), and Dallas - with an early-stage snapshot reporting roughly 23 total staff, a figure not independently re-verified since the 2025 Series C.161738 No Israeli franchise, reseller, or licensee relationship was identified; no operations, offices, or contracts were identified in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, or Israeli settlements.27 Empathy’s commercial distribution runs through B2B2C partnerships with global insurers and employers (Aflac, Allianz, MetLife, New York Life, MassMutual, Guardian, Sumitomo, Munich Re, TIAA), reaching a stated 9M+ covered employees and 50M+ policyholders concentrated in North America, with the UK cited as the company’s only explicit non-U.S. consumer market.19439

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of any mechanism connecting Empathy to Israeli military, defence, or security-sector activity. The company is a consumer/enterprise bereavement-support software platform with no contract, tender, or MOU with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF, Israel Prison Service, or Israel Border Police; no SIBAT directory listing; no dual-use or tactical product variant; no supply relationship with Elbit Systems, IAI, or Rafael; and no munitions, weapons-platform, or logistics-sustainment role.40

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Empathy’s product category - bereavement and administrative-support software - has no identified dual-use or military application in any source reviewed, and the company is absent from the OHCHR settlement-business database, the Albanese report, PAX’s arms-financier list, AFSC Investigate, Al-Haq, and Who Profits.91011121341 As a private company, Empathy has no SEC filings against which government-contract disclosures could be checked, but no independent source of any kind surfaced a defence-sector connection. A single unresolved lead - Entrée Capital managing partner Avi Eyal’s listed appearance as a speaker at “DefenseTech Week” 2025 - is noted without further corroborating detail on the nature of any defence-sector involvement and is treated as an unsubstantiated data point rather than a finding.42

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Empathy; Ron Gura (CEO); Yonatan Bergman (CTO); Eyal Gura; Shai Wininger; Avi (Aviad) Eyal (Entrée Capital) - none show a documented military-sector nexus.4344 Entrée Capital’s separate co-investment in Israeli defence-technology firm Traysar is an investor-level datapoint, not attributable to Empathy.26

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Empathy’s own privacy policy states that the company and its “authorized Service Providers maintain and store personal data in the United States, and process personal data in the United States, Israel and in other locations as reasonably necessary” - a primary-source admission that sensitive bereavement, estate, and insurance-claim data covering a claimed 40–50 million individuals is processed in Israeli jurisdiction.84 Empathy also maintains a confirmed Israeli R&D presence, with an active Tel Aviv office advertising engineering, product, and data roles.2223

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of any Israeli security-vendor dependency (Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, Claroty, Palo Alto Networks); Empathy’s disclosed stack is generic commercial tooling (React, React Native, TypeScript, Python, AWS, Figma, SQL).2223 No public evidence identified of facial-recognition, biometric, or surveillance technology use; no participation in Project Nimbus or any Israeli government cloud initiative; no defence-, intelligence-, or security-sector technology relationship; and no evidence connecting either founder to Unit 8200, Talpiot, or other IDF intelligence units despite specific searches on this point.454647

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Empathy / The Empathy Project Ltd (Tel Aviv office); Ron Gura; Yonatan Bergman - Israeli R&D presence and cross-border data processing confirmed; no security-vendor or surveillance-technology nexus identified.3022

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Empathy is an Israeli-founded, Israeli-R&D-anchored technology company. It was co-founded in Tel Aviv in 2020 by Ron Gura and Yonatan Bergman, maintains an active Tel Aviv office (Rubinstein Tower), and has raised $162M across four rounds with participation from Israeli venture firms Aleph and Entrée Capital alongside global investors and, from Series B onward, strategic insurance investors including MetLife, New York Life, MassMutual, Allianz, Munich Re, Securian, Sumitomo, Citi Impact Fund, TIAA Ventures, and Aflac Ventures via the “Empathy Alliance.”1811415435 This economic footprint - direct Israeli incorporation, an operating R&D hub, and Israeli investor participation - is the strongest and most directly proximate documented vector in this dossier.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Empathy has no physical-goods or agricultural supply chain and therefore no exposure to settlement-origin sourcing or country-of-origin labeling issues.4819 Its revenue model is overwhelmingly North America-concentrated (9M+ employees, 50M+ policyholders) via global insurer partnerships, with Israel referenced in company materials only as an engineering/R&D location, not as a target market.194 No public evidence identified of Israeli government ownership, Israel Innovation Authority grants, Preferred Technological Enterprise tax status, sovereign-bond holdings, or an Israel Bonds connection; the company is not yet profitable per available public reporting, and its Tel Aviv footprint (approximately 23 staff company-wide as of an early snapshot) is modest in absolute scale.49501617

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Empathy / The Empathy Project Ltd (Tel Aviv, incorporated 2020-07-14); Ron Gura; Yonatan Bergman; investors Aleph, Entrée Capital, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Adams Street Partners, and the “Empathy Alliance” strategic insurer coalition.30435

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Both co-founders carry documented prior Israeli military service in their professional biographies: Ron Gura served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Israeli Air Force (2002–2007), and Yonatan Bergman’s professional profile references a prior IDF “Engineering Manager” role.546 CEO Ron Gura posted a personal statement to his individual LinkedIn account on October 7, 2023, condemning the Hamas attack as “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” and expressing solidarity with Israeli civilians, issued in a personal rather than corporate capacity.6 A separate, investor-level datapoint was identified: Entrée Capital’s Avi Eyal, an Empathy Series A/B/C investor, sits on the board of the Israeli volunteer emergency-response nonprofit Lev Echad and has publicly described increasing his defence-tech investment activity “after the war.”2425

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No corporate-level statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict exists on any official Empathy channel; Gura’s October 7 post is personal, and no further statements addressing the conflict’s later stages, the ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion, or the ICC’s November 2024 warrants were identified.7 No public evidence identified of Empathy using founders’ military heritage in marketing or PR, of state honors, government-official hosting, or “Brand Israel” participation, of corporate lobbying, PAC activity, or FIDF/JNF/Israel Bonds contributions by the company or its founders, or of any operations in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights.272829 Entrée Capital’s percentage ownership stake in Empathy is not publicly disclosed, so whether this investor relationship crosses a controlling-shareholder threshold is an acknowledged evidence gap rather than a confirmed direct-proximity finding for Empathy itself.25

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Ron Gura (CEO, personal Oct 7, 2023 statement, prior IAF service); Yonatan Bergman (CTO, prior IDF-linked role); Yael Wissner-Levy and Avi Eyal (board/advisors); Entrée Capital / Avi Eyal (Lev Echad board seat, Traysar co-investment - investor-level, not Empathy-attributed).242651

BDS-1000 Score (V4)

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military1.000.400.800.01
Digital2.501.502.000.15
Economic7.804.509.005.01
Political5.504.006.502.92

V_MAX is driven entirely by Economic, reflecting Empathy’s direct, high-proximity Israeli corporate footprint - incorporation, an operating R&D hub, and Israeli venture-capital participation - rather than any military or digital-security activity, both of which score near zero. Political’s secondary contribution reflects founders’ documented military biography and a CEO’s personal statement, tempered by the absence of any corporate political stance or lobbying activity. The resulting Tier D (Moderate) classification places Empathy well below companies with confirmed defence-sector or settlement-operational activity, consistent with a company whose nexus is economic and biographical rather than military or infrastructural. The score is computed using the scale-free method: Impact (activity type) × Magnitude (scale) × Proximity (directness), drawn exclusively from the four evidence-only domain audits and subjected to human vetting.

Methodology Note

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/06/empathy-emerges-from-stealth-with-13m-for-a-digital-assistant-aimed-at-bereaved-families/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. https://www.timesofisrael.com/fiverr-lemonade-founders-back-israeli-startup-that-helps-mourners-manage-loss/ ↩ ↩2

  3. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250529944227/en/Empathy-Announces-$72-Million-Series-C-and-Unveils-Empathy-Alliance ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. https://www.empathy.com/about ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  5. https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/ryjq7x4qel ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rongura_tragedy-struck-today-as-hamas-terrorists-activity-7116436902991269888-SthY ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. https://www.empathy.com/legal/privacy ↩ ↩2

  8. https://www.empathy.com/legal/privacy ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/un-human-rights-office-updates-database-businesses-involved-israeli ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/regular-sessions/session31/database-hrc3136 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3794 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5923-economy-occupation-economy-genocide-report-special-rapporteur ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  13. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/7/3/un-expert-calls-on-world-to-end-trade-with-israels-economy-of-genocide ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  14. https://www.timesofisrael.com/fiverr-lemonade-founders-back-israeli-startup-that-helps-mourners-manage-loss/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  15. https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/12/empathy-berevement-death-ai/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Empathy-Israel-EI_IE8180664.11,25.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  17. https://en-studio.co.il/project/empathy/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  18. https://kr-asia.com/israeli-startup-empathy-is-on-a-mission-to-support-bereaved-families-with-tech ↩ ↩2

  19. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250529944227/en/Empathy-Announces-$72-Million-Series-C-and-Unveils-Empathy-Alliance ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  20. https://jobs.techaviv.com/jobs/empathy ↩

  21. https://theorg.com/org/empathy/org-chart/ron-gura ↩

  22. https://www.empathy.com/careers/engineering-team-lead.30.D59 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  23. https://jobs.techaviv.com/jobs/empathy ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/lev-echad-a-national-volunteer-force-in-times-of-crisis-627126 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  25. https://2025.defensetech-week.com/speaker/avi-eyal/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  26. https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-901212 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  27. https://www.empathy.com/about ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  28. https://www.kycisrael.com/companies/516223187/the-empathy-project-ltd/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  29. https://israel-keizai.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Empathy-Press-Kit-_-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2

  30. https://www.kycisrael.com/companies/516223187/the-empathy-project-ltd/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  31. https://www.finsmes.com/2021/09/empathy-raises-30m-in-series-a-funding.html ↩

  32. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/aviad-eyal ↩

  33. https://www.timesofisrael.com/fiverr-lemonade-founders-back-israeli-startup-that-helps-mourners-manage-loss/ ↩

  34. https://investors.aflac.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2024/Aflac-partners-with-Empathy-to-provide-on-demand-Loss-Support/default.aspx ↩

  35. https://www.adamsstreetpartners.com/insights/why-we-invested-in-empathy/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  36. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260708858022/en/Empathy-Named-as-a-Sample-Vendor-in-Gartner-Hype-Cycle-for-Life-Insurance-2026 ↩

  37. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/empathy-5cb4/profiles_and_contacts ↩

  38. https://en-studio.co.il/project/empathy/ ↩

  39. https://www.indexventures.com/companies/empathy/ ↩

  40. https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/12/empathy-berevement-death-ai/ ↩

  41. https://paxforpeace.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/The-Companies-Arming-Israel-and-Their-Financiers-June-2024.pdf ↩

  42. https://2025.defensetech-week.com/speaker/avi-eyal/ ↩

  43. https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2023/11/29/this-israeli-vc-claimed-the-crown-as-europes-best-investor/ ↩

  44. https://theorg.com/org/empathy/org-chart/ron-gura ↩

  45. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nimbus ↩

  46. https://theorg.com/org/empathy/org-chart/yonatan-bergman ↩ ↩2

  47. https://nocamels.com/2015/01/faces-of-the-startup-nation-qa-with-hotshot-entrepreneur-ron-gura/ ↩

  48. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.empathy.companion&hl=en_US&gl=US ↩

  49. https://israelbonds.com/about-us/ ↩

  50. https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Empathy-Israel-EI_IE8180664.11,25.htm ↩

  51. https://www.linkedin.com/company/lev-echad ↩