Homage, a Singapore-based startup that provides a platform for facilitating the connection of elderly senior citizens to caregiving healthcare professionals, recently announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum from its EV Growth-led Series B financing round, though the sum is understood to be double-digit millions. Aside from EV Growth, a Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm, other investors that also took part in Homage’s latest funding round include HealthXCapital, a Singapore early stage venture firm with a focus in healthcare startups; KDV Capital, an investment firm with a primary focus on early stage tech businesses in Asia; and Alternate Ventures. Both KDV Capital and Alternate Ventures are new investors in the caregiving provider startup’s latest funding round, while HealthXCaptial is a returning existing investor that also co-led the startups’ Series A funding round in 2018.
Homage, which was co-founded in 2016 by entrepreneur Gillian Tee, utilizes smart technology on its app to provide a platform that readily connects elderly citizens to professional caregivers on-demand, thus enabling the delivery of holistic, flexible personalized caregiving services to those in need, whether that be at elderly healthcare facilities, at home or for medical tourism. Through the co-founder’s earnest efforts over the years, which saw her collaborating together with over twenty partners including nursing homes, community partners, healthcare organizations both public and private, hospitals and various other healthcare organisations, the online platform managed to grow its pool of local caregivers from just a handful a few years ago to well over a thousand today. According to Homage, the startup has also experienced explosive growth in its business-to-business operations since its establishment a few years prior, as well as having initiated Southeast Asia’s largest pool of fully-screened caregiving professionals at approximately two thousand qualified caregivers.
The freshly acquired funds will enable Homage to further scale its business operations in three core areas. For one, the startup intends to improve accessibility and affordability of caregiving services by establishing new strategic partnerships with key players within its ecosystem, in both the public and private sectors. As well, the funds will enable the startup to further enhance the performance of its platform as it will put more investment into it. The new funding will also be used by the startup to further expand the reach of its on-demand caregiving services platform across the region of Southeast Asia, thus establishing a regional long-term caregiving infrastructure that improves affordability and accessibility of caregiving services to the people in the region. Additionally, the funding will be utilized to raise the quality and standard of its caregiving healthcare professionals by refining their capabilities and competencies in core skills such as nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, as well as other relevant skills and abilities that are required for rehabilitation care and daily living assistance. Furthermore, there are also plans to set in motion medication delivery services as part of an initiative to provide more wholesome, personalized healthcare.
According to Gillian Tee, chief executive officer and co-founder of Homage, the strategic partnership with EV Growth will enable the on-demand caregiving services provider startup to generate a higher impact and further accelerate their goal of providing a better, more personalized caregiving experience for serving the long term needs of the eldery across the region. With the funds raised from its Series B financing round and support from its partners, Homage will be able to strengthen the caregiving ecosystem across Southeast Asia and make caregiving services an affordable, reliable and accessible experience for the region’s seniors in need.
