Homage is Singapore's 'Uber for in-home care'

It secured US$1.2m from 500Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and SeedPlus in a seed round.

Homage is a web and mobile platform that provides on-demand caregiving to the elderly in Singapore. It combines curated and trained caregivers with smart technology that helps make the entire caregiving management process hassle-free.

"At the heart of Homage is making sure our seniors can have the option of remaining in the comfort of their own homes as they age. It’s something we want for ourselves, family members, and friends and we wanted to build the best type of service out there that can take care of that," says Gillian Tee, co-founder and CEO of Homage.

Whether it’s respite care to give the main caregiver a break or longer-term continuous care for dementia patients, Tee says the team behind Homage wants to be able to provide a holistic home-care solution.

She notes that finding and coordinating good quality care is hard, so she wanted technology to remove all the inefficiencies of managing care and matching the best caregiver to each unique care recipient. "What’s unique about Homage is we combine the power of on-demand technology with a deep emphasis on the professionalisation and training of our care pros," shares Tee.

Each care professional goes through a rigorous selection process involving a background/reference check, CPR certification, tuberculosis screening, certified caregiver training for the non-nursing trained, in-person interviews, and onboarding sessions conducted by Homage's clinical care operations staff, physiotherapist, and nurse manager.

The current acceptance rate at Homage is less than 10%, which Tee says indicates they keep their quality high in a way that they know they can trust their own parents with their care professionals.

These care professionals, as Homage calls them, are likened to micro-entrepreneurs as they are able to set their own terms as to when they work and what types of care services they provide whilst earning a good income.

"By powering an on-demand workforce through technology, we are excited to be able to enlarge the caregiver pool in Singapore," shares Tee. "In that aspect, we think of part of our services as enabling the 'Uber for in-home care' model."