Dear Homagers,
Today marks an incredibly meaningful milestone for us. We’re pleased to announce Homage’s S$40M (US $30M) Series C fundraise, the largest financing round raised by an on-demand aged and chronic care platform in Southeast Asia, and one of the largest in Asia Pacific.
As I reflect back on our journey in the past four years since our founding, I am blown away by how we have grown both as a team and as a business. In particular, three areas stand out:
1 – Our Impact and Who We Enable
Since our launch, we have delivered more than 1 million hourly care sessions.
Amidst the excitement surrounding our funding news, I hope we can take a pause to consider what that really means.
That number translates into countless stories of real impact we have heard time and again, from enabling a supermom of four boys re-enter the workforce to how a single mum with cancer decided to give back as a Homage Care Professional and how male carers on our platform have debunked the stereotypes that only women can be caregivers.
We have now built a regional network of more than 6,000 fully screened, trained and curated Care Professionals, including certified and trained caregivers, licensed nurses, care navigators and board-certified therapists and physicians delivering care to thousands every month.
When I think about the extent of impact we enable everyday through the partners we work with, I cannot think of a better way to devote our energy and resources than towards our mission of enabling wellness and recovery wherever and whenever someone needs it.
2 – A Homage to the Team
We started out as a small Singapore operation in 2017 and have grown to a global one today. At the end of 2017, we had a team of 15 people which grew to over 40 by the end of 2018. Over the past two years we grew faster, with 60 people at the end of 2019 and now close to 150 incredible individuals who make up Homage in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and our soon to be Japan team.
While this has been in line with and driven by our business growth in the past year outside Singapore of more than sixfold and the business more than tripling as a whole over the past year, what matters more is that I have witnessed how each Homager’s growth and mindset, dedication and grit has been the driving force of our growth and impact.
When I think about what success means for us and me personally, it is not hallmarked by the funding amount but the strength and personal growth of the team (including myself!) that leads to impact. Many Homagers have joined and grew within the company and now manage teams with more responsibilities, and seeing the team grow and thrive is one of the most satisfying parts of what we do.
To sum up, our growth and impact to date and opportunity to do more with this successful fundraising is only made possible by the impact you enable, and so we dedicate how far we’ve come today to each of you!
3 – Looking Ahead
I have shared this with many of you and it is incredible to think that for the first time ever, the global burden of disease is now tilting more heavily towards chronic illness away from the acute, with the highest incidence rates now found in older adults aged above 65.
We are simply living longer in more sick years, where the impact is and will not only be felt by those who require care but increasingly also by their primary caregivers and wider support community.
When it comes to the type of resources that have been poured into medical facilities and aged care facilities, why has there then been comparatively very little investment made to helping us and the people who matter to us live well and better for the long haul within our own communities and homes?
With most countries in Asia becoming an aged or super aged population within the next ten years, the time is now to build and scale much needed quality long term care infrastructure – from payor to provider – to meet the fast growing everyday living support and clinical needs that we will all need in the long term.
I believe we have built the foundations for a solution that would truly transform this space, and cannot wait to continue to build on what we’ve already started. As a team, what a privilege it is to work on a mission with conviction is one of the most important problems to solve in this day and age.
To that end we are extremely excited to partner with Sheares Healthcare, who shares our vision in bridging the gaps in the ecosystem and bringing about better outcomes and needed holistic solutions to our care recipients and carers.
Some Final Words
Finally, on a personal note, I would like to thank those who have stood by the team throughout both the good times and challenging, in particular our leaders at all levels PC, Bel, Alan, Jeff, Ashley, Abhi, Xingyi, Aaron, Azrin, Adrian Chew, Adrian Chin, Beatrice, Wei Ni, Wei Sheng, Darren, Ashish, Adil, Usama, Wei Sheng, Yao, to name a few (Fun fact: The Homage team has an overwhelming number of people with names starting with ‘A’, we’ve definitely maxed out on A-team jokes so will leave them out here.)
To the whole Homage team, your actions, commitment and grit has propped us up, especially in the last 18 months which saw us through a particularly unpredictable time. Homage is known internally to have a hugely supportive and driven culture and we thank you for striving to always lift each other up and turning our cause into daily reality.
A special thank you to Shao-Ning, Dershing, Teck Moh, Willy, Raghav and Anthony who have supported us from the start.
Last and not least, to our board members and advisors at East Ventures Growth, HealthXCapital, Golden Gate Ventures and Sheares Healthcare – Willson, Yinwei, Seemant, Justin, Vinnie and now Ee Ping who have been partnering Homage closely and will now be formally coming onboard — it’s been an incredible journey, and we couldn’t have reached where we are without your continuous support and counsel. We’re tremendously grateful.
We believe we are in a position to make real change and be a driver of transformation and innovation in the long term care space towards better accessibility and value-based care — and we’ll be looking to further build this out link by link in the healthcare ecosystem as an integrative partner. I truly believe we’re just at the beginning of our potential.
I’m jumping into this next chapter filled with gratitude for all we’ve learned over the last few years and with excitement for what’s to come!
Gillian Tee
Founder, CEO @Homage
