Gigacover, a Singapore-based insurtech company, recently teamed up with EXOASIA Innovation Hub, a global management consultancy, to provide 360 digital insurance protection for Filipino freelancers, start-ups, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that micro, small, and medium enterprises account for 99.5% of businesses in the country. In the recent years, the gig economy and startup industry have also taken off in the Philippines. Latest figures from the Department of Trade and Industry revealed that at least 1.5 million Filipinos are employed in freelancing jobs while the local startup ecosystem is valued at USD 2 Billion in 2022. Despite their significant economic contributions, businesses and workers in these sectors often have limited access to insurance products.
EXOASIA Innovation Hub is a global transformation ecosystem that connects professionals, organizations, and institutions to create better future for everyone. Its three verticals on certification, incubation, and ecosystems aim to inspire, validate, and scale up solution by solving local problems through alliances between entrepreneurs, organizations, and governments and leveraging on deep tech and global innovation ecosystems. Under the partnership, all of EXOASIA’s community webinars, meet-ups, hackathons, incubations, accelerations, and follow-on events for freelancers and entrepreneurs will feature a segment on health and financial protection plans to increase awareness for these products.
“The program aims to further educate, make healthcare and insurance products more accessible, and affordable to those in the Informal sector. With this partnership, EXOASIA, allows its community of founders, entrepreneurs and digital nomads to access such benefits without breaking bank” shared Chesca Figueroa, Country Manager at Gigacover.
“The concept of insurance being digital and dedicated for freelancers and self-employed workers is still novel to many Filipinos. For the longest time, the insurance we know circles around life, non-life, and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) — and you need an agent to get one,” shared Amerson Lin, CEO and co-founder at Gigacover. “We are thrilled to partner with EXOASIA which shares our value of ensuring freelancers should have protection with innovative digital insurance products tailored to this sector.”
“COVID-19 uncovered how under-insured Filipinos are. Freelancers, start-ups, and MSMEs are challenged with exorbitant premium costs of insurance and there’s not enough education on how, where, and what to look for in insurance providers. These are the problems we hope to solve through this partnership, where we educate and make affordable health insurance accessible to everyone. “ shared Mack Comandante, Founder and CEO at EXOASIA Innovation Hub.