Gillian Tee was ten years old when the elderly nanny who had raised her died of cancer. Tee became aware of the everyday assistance required by many seniors, as well as the difficulty families encounter in locating adequate care, as a result of that experience and a close link with her grandmother. Over two decades later, she cofounded Homage in Singapore, which claims to offer the largest pool of carers in the city-state that families can employ using an app.
"I think most people in healthcare businesses start in the field because of personal experiences," the 40-year-old CEO adds through video. After earning an M.B.A. from Columbia University, the computer science graduate (University of Melbourne) had her first taste of business management. She cofounded the New York-based ticketing company Ticketmaster in 2012.Rocketrip is a booking platform. She returned to Singapore a few years later to be closer to family, where she spotted an opportunity to combine digital technology with home-based care services. "I genuinely believed in the notion of achieving well by doing good," she says of her choice to cofound Homage with former cofounders Lily Phang and Tong Duong.
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Homage has grown to 15,000 part- and full-time caretakers, expanded to Malaysia and Australia, and garnered more than $45 million in capital from investors including Singapore state fund Temasek and Southeast Asia-focused Golden Gate Ventures since its inception in 2016.
The company's expansion into Malaysia in 2018 increased sales by 170% to S$1.8 billion.According to the most recent data, the amount is S$5.8 million. Tee claims that sales more than quadrupled last year and foreign revenues have increased eightfold in the previous 18 months as the firm prepares to expand into Australia in 2021.
Homage, which reached this year's list of the 100 to Watch, has also expanded beyond caring to include services such as telemedicine, medication delivery, and the selling of medical supplies. Tee is currently focusing on the problem of meeting Asia's growing need for healthcare. According to government data, persons aged 65 and older made up about 17% of Singapore's resident population in 2022.
Not only in Singapore, but throughout the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to some of the world's most affluent people.Populations that are the oldest and fastest ageing According to Vikram Kapur, partner and head of Asia-Pacific healthcare at consulting firm Bain & Co. in Singapore, the area will account for 60% of the world's over-65 population in the next decade, as well as 250 million diabetics. "Healthcare in this region of the world is truly at a crossroads," adds Kapur.Homage's digital platform provides a specialised decentralised service in an increasingly tech-savvy sector in Singapore and Malaysia, where the elderly are mostly cared for by family members, live-in domestic help, or attendants in nursing institutions or those contracted through brick-and-mortar organisations. According to a Bain analysis released this year, more people in Southeast Asia began using digital healthcare solutions due to limited access to in-person visits during the epidemic. As with online meal delivery and finance, many people continue to utilise digital healthcare because it is convenient, according to the survey. "Consumer expectations are shifting dramatically," adds Kapur. "You have very quick access to food delivery and other services." However, there is dissatisfaction with healthcare."
Homage is attempting to address this issue by allowing families to hire part-time and full-time employees.It provides caregivers for durations ranging from one hour to customizable prepaid packages of up to 200 hours at publicised rates. Its app has over 15,000 downloads in the Google Play store, and the company claims to have provided consumers with over 1 million hours of service. In comparison to Singapore's Doctor Anywhere, a prominent telemedicine app with over a million downloads in Southeast Asia that offers video consultation with a doctor in under five minutes, Homage claims to be able to organise similar virtual meetings in 30 minutes, with house calls within a day. It dispatches carers in two days.
"We discovered that many stroke patients sought telemedicine services during the epidemic," Tee explains. "So we have [telemedicine], which is an auxiliary because it contributes to the overall picture."patients' well-being." Homage's expansion into medical and healthcare devices such as blood pressure monitors is intended to meet a demand. "We will always keep the care receiver in mind," she says. "For instance, what does a stroke sufferer require?" We will continuously strive for better solutions for the patient."
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