5,200 jobs retained and 1,500 new roles created through the DBS Foundation Business Transformation and Improvement (BTI) Grant launched in May 2020
Amid the economic uncertainty, 14 social enterprises (SEs) across the region have been able to support lives and livelihoods not only by keeping their employees on the payroll but also by creating new jobs. With the support of the DBS Foundation Business Transformation and Improvement (BTI) Grant[1], these SEs have since retained the jobs of 5,200 workers, as well as added 1,500 new jobs.
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In May 2020, the DBS Foundation pledged SGD 500,000 in the inaugural DBS Foundation BTI Grant, which sought to deepen support and improve job security for DBS Foundation-supported SEs amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The SEs that received funding were able to retain their workers, create new jobs or pivot and transform their business models to include new revenue streams.
Homage, a Singaporean-founded healthcare platform that pairs families with caregivers and offers telehealth for online medical consultations and screenings, was one of three SEs in Singapore to receive the DBS Foundation BTI Grant. Homage was selected by the Ministry of Health this year to perform Covid-19 swab testing and related test procedures. With DBS Foundation’s grant funding, Homage has since purchased over 2,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect their frontline workers; doubled its Covid-19 taskforce to a 400-strong team; and is on track to complete swab tests for over 80,000 individuals by end-2020.
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Gillian Tee, Co-founder and CEO of Homage, said, “When we were deployed to join the national fight against Covid-19, we felt this strong sense of urgency to act. But we also felt compelled to first make sure our staff were equipped with the right safety equipment and training. The additional funding from the DBS Foundation BTI Grant was thus timely – it enabled us to pivot quickly to tackle these new needs that arose in the face of Covid-19, such as building and training a taskforce to provide swab tests and other Covid-19 related health services, and purchasing PPE to keep them safe.”
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