Edmonton-Based Startup PainWorth Secures $2.1 million in First Venture Financing

PainWorth, a company that uses specialized software to assist personal injury claimants and insurance companies reach settlements more efficiently, has secured a total of $2.1 million in its first venture financing. 

The Edmonton-based startup was founded in 2019 by Mike Zouhri and Chris Trudel following an accident that led to Zouhri having to settle his own personal injury claim. He quickly caught on to the many difficulties surrounding the personal injury process, and viewed his experience as an opportunity to help make the process more cost efficient and less time consuming. “This is an industry that has been sort of forgotten by its peers, and its stuck in the 1970s,” Zouhri said. “It’s still very, very manual. It’s still very, very slow, and its incredibly adversarial.”

PainWorth uses data science technology to quickly analyze non-complex claims and find the relevant legislation and past cases that apply. Prior to its venture financing, the company focused solely on claimants by helping them evaluate the fairness of settlements offers. However, as Zouhri explained to BetaKit, the company’s substantial growth in 2021 together with its new funding will allow PainWorth to expand its platform to serve insurance companies as well. 

Participation in PainWorth’s all-equity seed round included 2048 Ventures, Panache Ventures and Mistral Venture Partners. “We invested because PainWorth was building something that would fix problems that shouldn’t exist: claimants getting ignored by lawyers when their claim is too small, and settlements being unnecessarily slow and expensive because of a lack of transparency,” explained Patrick Lor, Managing Partner of Panache Ventures. “With Painworth, the process can be settled in 30 days, with more money going to claimants and less cost for insurance companies.”