Tending is a technology-driven grave care platform that enables families to remotely order headstone restoration, cleaning, maintenance, flower placement, and other memorial services through its website and mobile app. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Tending Founder and CEO Artem Manilov to learn more.
Artem Manilov’s Background
When asked about his background and experience in the funeral industry, Manilov shared:
I have been working in the funeral industry for about 10 years. We originally started by providing cemetery inventory and digitization projects, along with developing a SaaS platform specifically designed for cemetery management.
When we first approached this market, we spent a significant amount of time researching it in depth. We attended numerous industry conferences and exhibitions, held many consultations with cemetery operators and professionals, and studied how the sector works from the inside. Only after this extensive research did we decide to fully commit to building a company in this space.
How Tending Started
When discussing how his professional experience and a personal situation led to the creation of Tending, Manilov explained:
The idea for Tending came from a combination of professional experience and a personal situation. When we started working with cemeteries and building our platform, we quickly realized that the funeral industry is extremely conservative and that there were limited levels of customer service and digital or remote solutions available for families.
Around the same time, I personally faced the challenge of caring for the grave of a close friend of my grandfather, which is located far from where I live.
When these two things came together – our understanding of the industry’s gaps and my personal experience – it became clear to me that there should be a simple digital service that allows families to care for graves and memorials even when they cannot physically visit them. That realization led to the creation of Tending.
Meaningful Customer Reactions
When asked about his favorite memories from working at Tending, Manilov recalled:
From the beginning, I understood that this work was important for people. But when we started receiving five-star reviews and customers began sharing their feelings, writing that they had tears in their eyes when they saw the results, we realized even more clearly how meaningful this service is and how much it helps families. That gave us a lot of motivation to move forward.
There was also a very interesting story when a woman in Austin, Texas, ordered the restoration of a single monument. When we arrived, we discovered an entire abandoned cemetery. It turned out that the whole area belonged to her family. There were about seven or eight monuments there, and we restored the entire site. She was incredibly happy about it.
That was a very memorable project for us.
Grave Care And Restoration Services
When describing Tending’s core products and features, Manilov detailed:
Today, Tending primarily helps restore headstones so that they look almost like new again. We clean and restore the monuments themselves and also restore the inscriptions because, very often, a monument can be in such poor condition that the text is difficult to read.
If relatives, children, or grandchildren come to visit and they don’t already know exactly where the grave is located, it can even be difficult for them to find it.
So, the first core service we provide is headstone restoration, or restoration followed by ongoing care and maintenance.
In addition to that, we now offer a range of related services. For example, we can place flowers, replace certain elements of a monument, prepare wreaths, and generally provide many types of services connected to the grave or memorial site.
An important part of the platform is that everything can be done completely remotely through our mobile app or website. A customer does not need to travel anywhere. They can simply place an order online, and our team will locate the grave, complete the work, and send photo reports showing the site’s condition when our worker arrived and the final result after the work is finished.
Working With Cemeteries
When asked about challenges in the funeral and cemetery sector and how Tending has addressed them, Manilov noted:
To be honest, we are not very dependent on cemeteries themselves or on the conservative nature of the industry. In many ways, we represent something new that operates much faster and differently from the traditional funeral sector.
This is possible because we are a technology-driven company, and our operations are not heavily dependent on cemetery systems. Of course, in some cases, we need to obtain certain permissions from cemeteries to perform work, but in practice, this usually goes smoothly.
Cemeteries are used to working with families and understand that these places are very important to them, so they generally cooperate with services like ours.
Technology Evolution
When discussing how Tending’s technology has evolved since launching, Manilov described:
At the beginning, like many startups, we initially operated without a full system. We would receive orders and then find workers who could complete the jobs.
Once we understood the entire process better, we built and programmed a complete technological workflow. Now, the system includes not only the process of receiving an order from a family but also a full management dashboard where we track all orders, along with their status and quality.
We also developed the GraveTender app, which is used by our workers. Through this app, they first go through onboarding, then receive their assignments and report on the completion of the work.
In addition, we have been developing AI tools that help us recognize headstones and evaluate their condition. For now, this functionality is mainly used internally, but soon we plan to release it for families as well. With this, they will be able to use our app to assess the condition of a monument and understand what kind of restoration may be needed.
Major Company Milestones
When asked about Tending’s most significant milestones, Manilov said:
Our first major milestone was when we received our very first customer who completed the entire process online and received the final result. For us, that was the first real confirmation that our idea actually worked.
Since then, another important milestone has been reaching a significant volume of orders. Today, we are completing dozens of orders per day.
Another very meaningful moment for us was when we began receiving customer reviews and reading what people were writing about their experiences and feelings. Seeing those reactions made us realize even more clearly how important this service is.
And, of course, it was also a big milestone when our workers were able to start receiving assignments through the app, completing them, and submitting reports directly there without needing constant communication. Being able to manage the whole process online was a major step forward for us.
Discovering A Family Cemetery
When invited to share a specific customer success story, Manilov explained:
Yes, I mentioned one of the most interesting stories earlier. A client believed she had only one grave at what she thought was just a single, isolated burial site. She didn’t even realize it was part of a cemetery.
When we arrived to restore the monument, we noticed that there were several other headstones nearby. When we informed her and sent photos, she realized that it was actually an entire small family cemetery and that the other graves also belonged to her relatives.
She was very surprised and pleasantly shocked by this discovery.
In fact, we later shared this story with the ICCFA, and it helped us win First Place in the Supplier category at the ICCFA Keeping It Personal Awards this year.
Funding And Revenue Growth
When asked about Tending’s funding and revenue metrics, Manilov specified:
So far, the company has primarily been funded through bootstrapping, along with investments from two family offices.
Looking ahead, we expect that the next stage of financing will likely involve working with a venture fund as we prepare for a Series A round.
We are already generating revenue and processing a growing number of orders. At the moment, we are seeing more than 100% month-over-month growth.
Memorial Care Market
When discussing the total addressable market Tending is pursuing, Manilov stated:
What is important to understand is that today, there are about 270 million graves and monuments in the United States.
Our primary target audience is people aged 45 and older, since these are typically the people who have relatives buried and who are able to make decisions about monument care.
Even without technology platforms, the existing market for monument restoration and maintenance is already estimated at no less than $6 billion per year in the U.S. This includes workers who either operate directly at cemeteries or are independently hired to perform restoration and maintenance work on monuments.
Tending’s Differentiators
When asked what differentiates Tending from its competition, Manilov emphasized:
One important point is that we don’t really have direct competitors. There is currently no service that operates nationwide across the United States where families can easily order this type of service online.
In reality, our only alternative is the independent workers you might find near cemeteries who offer restoration services. But the problem with using independent workers is that it’s often unclear how to pay them conveniently, there are no guarantees regarding the quality of the work, and there is no online reporting.
Usually, you would need to spend your own time traveling to the cemetery, arranging the work, and then coming back to check the result. If something isn’t done properly, additional trips and extra effort are required.
Our platform and app make it possible to handle all of this remotely. Families can order the service online and receive photo reports. We take responsibility for the entire process. If there are any issues with quality, we handle them and guarantee the service.
Future Goals
When discussing Tending’s future goals, Manilov concluded:
Of course, one of our biggest goals is to continue growing, scaling the company, and providing these services to as many families as possible.
Our broader strategic goal includes not only performing the physical work of restoring, cleaning, or maintaining monuments. We want to create a platform that helps families preserve memory.
Our vision is to turn Tending into a real tool that helps families keep the memory of their loved ones, pass it on to future generations, and do it in a new, technology-driven way.
