Afterleaf was born from something most people never want to see.

I worked as an embalming assistant. I witnessed firsthand what death does to families, not just the grief, but the financial weight that arrives alongside it. Families shattered in two ways at once: by loss and by the bill. I watched a system that should have held them up leave them more vulnerable instead.

I also watched trees get cut down, lacquered and buried in the same ground we grow our food from. Boxes that give nothing back. That only take.

That's where Afterleaf began. 🌿

Woman presenting at a conference with a screen displaying 'afterleaf' in a room with large windows.

I'm Ilse, the person behind Afterleaf Eco -and I believe deeply in 2 things:

That death doesn't have to destroy you financially and that every goodbye can become an act of life.

Afterleaf it's an invitation to plant a tree, to take responsibility for it, to remember that we are part of a cycle, not the end of one. 🌳

One tree won't save the planet... But one million people who each planted one because they had someone to remember, that might.

We treat death as it is something to manage, not something to honor. Afterleaf Eco Urn exists to give it meaning again. To make the farewell a ritual, not a transaction... So what you loved most doesn't disappear: it grows. 🪴

Turning that belief into a real business took help: Built in Arizona. Rooted in México.🌵

Afterleaf Eco Urn has been developed with the support of entrepreneurial programs like "Mexicana Emprende" at the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix impulsed by Thunderbird School of Global Management (ASU), trained through Empower by GoDaddy in partnership with ignite sparked by BBB, and has competed in pitch competitions where Afterleaf Eco Urn earned 3rd place, recognized for what it is: necessary.

I am not a corporation.

I am just an artisan who saw what happens when there are no dignified options... And decided to build one.

For humans, for pets, for the ones who left too soon and the ones who lived a full life.

El amor hecho raíz. Love turned to root. 🪴

Plant their memory