Lantern

What Lantern does

Lantern was a New York-based end-of-life planning platform founded in 2018 that provided families with step-by-step digital guidance for navigating events before and after a death. Its core product was a self-serve consumer tool featuring checklists and a Care Plan document workspace intended to help users organize end-of-life logistics, with no publicly disclosed pricing or monetized tier. The company operated with a lean staff of 1-10 employees and was led by co-founders Liz Eddy (CEO) and Alyssa Ruderman (COO), with Shae Smith as a technical lead.

In parallel, Lantern partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) starting in 2021 to deliver free specialty texting programs — TALK (speech and language development), HEAR (hearing health), and later EAT (pediatric feeding), which launched in May 2026 — providing expert-vetted weekly guidance to caregivers of young children via SMS in English, Spanish, and Arabic. The HEAR program won the 2025 ASHA Summit Award. These programs were positioned as public health initiatives rather than revenue-generating products.

Lantern raised approximately $880,000 in 2019, $1.4 million in 2020, and an additional round from Healthworx (the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield investment arm) in 2022. The company was acquired by Wellthy, a care concierge serving employers, health plans, carriers, and families, in 2025. Approximately one year later, on September 1, 2026, Lantern was decommissioned as a standalone product, with member support transitioned onto Wellthy's caregiving platform.

Name

Lantern

Legal name

Lantern

Website

https://lantern.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Lantern was a New York-based end-of-life planning platform, founded in 2018, that gave families digital tools and step-by-step guidance for pre- and post-death logistics. It also co-delivered free ASHA texting programs on child speech, hearing, and feeding before being acquired by Wellthy in 2025 and decommissioned in September 2026.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

End-of-Life Care Planning

NAICS

Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities (624120), Services for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities (62412)

akta.pro primary industry

Assistive Technology & AAC for Young Children (EDACAFAL)

Keywords

• End-of-life planning
• Caregiver texting programs
• Pediatric feeding guidance
• Speech language development
• Care planning platform

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Free Community Health Program: The EAT texting program is offered free of charge to caregivers, funded through the partnership with ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). This is a non-commercial public health initiative rather than a revenue-generating product.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Lantern operated as an end-of-life planning platform that provided digital tools and document management services for families to organize end-of-life care and planning needs. In parallel, Lantern partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to deliver free specialty texting programs (EAT, TALK, HEAR) offering weekly expert guidance to caregivers on pediatric feeding, speech/language development, and hearing health. The platform was acquired by Wellthy in 2025 and decommissioned on September 1, 2026.

Product overview

Lantern was an end-of-life planning platform offering digital tools for families to organize and plan for end-of-life needs. The platform included a Care Plan feature for document management. Lantern also partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to deliver specialty texting programs including EAT (pediatric feeding), TALK (speech/language), and HEAR (hearing) — providing targeted guidance via weekly text messages in multiple languages. Following acquisition by Wellthy, Lantern was decommissioned on September 1 and its content integrated into Wellthy's caregiving concierge services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• EAT Texting Program Free texting program delivering expert guidance on pediatric feeding challenges including picky eating and pediatric feeding disorder to caregivers of children ages 6 months to 5 years. Sends one text per week for approximately 5 months covering feeding strategies, developmental milestones, and guidance on when to seek professional help. Available in English, Spanish, and Arabic.
• TALK Texting Program Specialty texting program developed through the ASHA and Lantern collaboration, focusing on speech and language development guidance for caregivers. Provides weekly expert content via text message as part of the multi-program ASHA-Lantern partnership.
• HEAR Texting Program Specialty texting program developed through the ASHA and Lantern collaboration, focusing on hearing-related guidance for caregivers. Won a 2025 Summit Award for associations making a meaningful difference. Delivered as weekly text messages to subscribers.

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• WellthycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Wellthy acquired Lantern, an innovative end-of-life platform. Over approximately one year, Wellthy integrated Lantern's end-of-life planning materials into their comprehensive caregiving concierge, community, and planning services. Lantern was decommissioned on September 1, with services continuing through Wellthy's platform.
• ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Lantern and ASHA have collaborated since 2021 on specialty texting programs for families. The EAT program is their third joint initiative, following TALK (language development) and HEAR (hearing health), which won a 2025 Summit Award. The partnership leverages ASHA's professional expertise in speech-language pathology and hearing health to deliver expert guidance directly to caregivers through text messages.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Text4Baby: Text4Baby is a free text-based maternal and infant health education program. Comparable as a text-message public health intervention for caregivers of young children, similar in delivery model to Lantern's ASHA programs.
• Tribute: Tribute is a memorial and family-connection platform that helps families honor and remember loved ones. Adjacent to Lantern's legacy planning focus, addressing the post-death end of the family care journey.

Broad incumbents

• Care.com: Care.com is a large marketplace and platform connecting families with caregivers across aging, child, and special needs care. Comparable as a broad family-caregiving platform with overlap in elder care and family support adjacent to Lantern's domain.
• Wellthy: Wellthy is the acquiring company and a broader end-to-end care concierge platform serving employers, health plans, carriers, and families. Comparable because Lantern's assets and content now live inside Wellthy's caregiving ecosystem.
• Honor Technology: Honor is a larger home care platform serving older adults and their families with in-home care services. Comparable because it addresses the broader family caregiving journey, intersecting with Lantern's end-of-life and caregiving support domain.

Direct peers

• Cake: Cake is a direct competitor in the end-of-life planning space, offering digital tools and educational content to help individuals organize end-of-life wishes, advance directives, and legacy planning — directly overlapping with Lantern's original core offering.
• Everplans: Everplans is an end-of-life planning platform for organizing documents, healthcare directives, and legacy information. Directly comparable to Lantern's original digital end-of-life planning product offering.
• Bright by Text: Bright by Text delivers text-message-based parenting and child development content to caregivers, including feeding, language, and developmental milestones. Closely comparable to Lantern's EAT, TALK, and HEAR specialty texting programs.
• Parting: Parting is an end-of-life services marketplace that helps families coordinate cremation, burial, and related arrangements. Comparable to Lantern in serving the family-facing end-of-life planning journey, though more transactional in nature.
• Empathy: Empathy provides bereavement and end-of-life planning support, combining digital planning tools with human concierge services for families navigating loss. Directly comparable to Lantern's pre-acquisition end-of-life planning and family guidance focus.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FollowLantern
• Facebookfacebook.com/FollowLantern
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wellthy
• Instagraminstagram.com/meetwellthy

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors10 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lantern