We’re still reeling with excitement from Willful’s Dragons’ Den debut. On the Dec 2nd episode, Willful’s co-founders Erin Bury and Kevin Oulds entered the den in search of $500,000 in exchange for 5% of the company. We’re thrilled to share that Willful landed a $750,000 investment from investors including Dragon and Canadian tech entrepreneur, Michele Romanow.
Showcasing Willful to the Dragons and hundreds of thousands of Canadians who tuned in was a milestone event for us. Since 2017, Willful has been on a mission to make estate planning more accessible for Canadians. You might remember from last night’s episode that 57% of Canadian adults don’t have a will - we’ve been working hard to change that.
As of today, we’ve helped Canadians create over 100,000 estate planning documents across eight provinces. This year we also became the first company to offer a fully digital notarial will in Quebec, which can be completed 100% online without the need to physically print or consult a notary in person, and we executed the first fully digital will in British Columbia. Our Dragons’ Den deal will help us to keep growing and bring digital estate planning into the hands of even more Canadians.
“We are thrilled to welcome Michele and our other new investors to join us as Willful grows. The estate planning industry in Canada is still stuck in the past, but small victories have been achieved like the passing of Bill 21 in BC which allows British Columbians to electronically sign, virtually witness, and store their wills online. As we see this landscape slowly evolve, we’re excited to be leading the way and this new funding will help us remain innovators in this space.”
- Erin Bury, CEO and Co-Founder of Willful
If you’d like to watch (or re-watch) Willful’s appearance on Dragons’ Den, the episode (Season 16, Episode 21) will be available here. For a behind-the-scenes look, you can also read about Erin and Kevin’s experience pitching the Dragons.
