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Founding Story of Gathercare
The Incident
In 2016, a 21 years old girl from Singapore fell into a coma and was admitted to Singapore hospital. Diagnosed with acute hepatitis, her parents had to contend with the reality that their beloved needed no less than a liver transplant to improve her condition.
The Heart-Breaking Turn of Events
The family was hit with an equivalent of a whopping RM1.5 million bill to proceed with the procedure. That’s not the amount they could come up with in such short notice. They went for the fundraising route but before they could even raise RM300k — that's just enough for the deposit — the girl passed away two weeks later on the 25th of February.
The Contemplation
The heart-breaking story had shed tears of many. Just why does one have to suffer and only begin to raise funds when the urgency is already at its peak? This thought was a genuine curiosity of a man named Gideon Leong.
The Light Bulb Moment
At this point, he realized that the episode was too painful to befall another soul, and something had to be done. Gideon went on to devise a plan. He worked with his manager at the drawing board, perfecting the concept for three years before the Life Engineering medical cost crowd-sharing platform was born.
The Creation
Life Engineering, a brainchild of Gideon and his like-minded partners, was launched in March 2017 as a true crowd-sharing platform. Rebranding was done in 2020, turning Life Engineering into Gathercare. Gathercare aims to strengthen the community in order to untie the knot between health and money.
The Professionals at Gathercare Joined Efforts to Provide a Smooth Experience to Ensure Our Carers Are as Comfortable and Worry-Free as Possible.
Gideon has more than 25 years of experience being a serial entrepreneur. He founded 4 companies in total and was awarded with the Malaysia Top 10 New Startups recognition in 2016. He has also successfully raised over 12 million of funding in total from the venture capital & equity crowdfunding.
Gideon Leong
Founder & CEORaymond has more than 18 years' experience in actuarial & risk management. Prior to his 2 years in Regional Insurance Lead for Grab CRO of AIG Asia Pacific and Asia Capital Reinsurance Group. He is also an advisor of insurtech companies from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia & Indonesia.
Raymond Cheung
Chief Risk Officer (Singapore)Ravinder has more than 20 years' experience in reinsurance at Swiss Re & Hannover Re Company. Prior to that he was a General Manager of Life & Health for South & South East Asia of Hannover Re. He is now a licensed established Financial Advisor in Malaysia.
Ravinder Singh
Reinsure & BD AdvisorNicholas is a founder of an actuarial firm. He is a fellow of Institute and Faculty of Actuaries of UK & US and also a Chairperson of Professional Development Committee and Events Committee of Actuarial Society of Malaysia. He graduated with 1st honour from Cass Business School.
Nicholas Yeo
Actuarial Advisor
The Concept of Sharing Economy.
The concept of crowd sharing is the new economy! Since ancient times, the spirit of helping each other is seen as a virtue regardless of races.
Today, Gathercare uses the help of technology and creative business models while abiding to laws, we curated a perfect platform for us to help each other. Each Carer in the Gathercare Community has pledged to contribute a maximum RM50 per month (*Referring to age between 6 Y.O to 40 Y.O) in helping any soul within the community who are in need of medical treatments.
Our Milestone
We grew up and expanded up till today with trust and confidence build from happy customers and cooperation from partners.
The Beginning
Gathercare began as Life Engineering in 2017, and was later rebranded to Gathercare in 2020. Since inception, it was never meant to be an insurance scheme or a medical card plan, rather a program to facilitate Crowd Sharing of community members' medical bills.
The First Big Hurdle
In May, after just two months from launching, Life Engineering found itself listed on the BNM Financial Consumer Alert List because at the time, it the concept was deemed too radical and potentially harming the medical protection industries.
Out Of The Woods
Life Engineering had been submitting its papers every month to be reviewed BNM. Finally in January 2018, Life Engineering was removed from the alert list when BNM realized that the program is not breaking any guideline for insurance and takaful products, because it's not in that category to begin with.
Crowd Sharing With Shariah Credence
Life Engineering engaged with Afsha Shariah Advisory, a shariah compliance body to audit every aspect of the program in accordance to shariah compliancy guidelines. In January, the program was awarded the Shariah Compliance Certificate, and since then is under constant monitoring to retain the compliancy.
Domestic Disinterest
Locally, the initial take up rate was underwhelming. The public was careful amidst the lingering news of the BNM alert list insertion. In June 2019, Life Engineering proposal was submitted to the Monetary Authority of Singapore to gauge acceptance abroad.
A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Sharers
In September, we witnessed the number of participation ticked from 3 digits to 4 digits.
Marketing 2.0: The Rise Of Proxies
To accelerate with expansion, agent system was introduced to amass new registrations.
Engineering New Life For The Brand
In December, Gathercare was chosen as the new name for rebranding from Life Engineering. Due to many reasons, among them is to enliventhe core mission of the program. At the same time, the age group of participation was expanded to include those who are 41-45 years old.
Going Global, Not A Bridge Too Far
After many back and forth, documenting legal opinions and opening discussion paper with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and also some delays caused by the Covid pandemic, finally in December 2021 Gathercare now has a branch office in Singapore.
5000 For Fighting
On the 15th of March 2022, Gathercare was celebrating it's 5 years in the market and coincidentally, we were also welcoming our first 5000th member into the community.
An Opportunity Not To Be Passed
Bank Negara Malaysia came out with its Digital Insurance Takaful Operators discussion paper. It's an opening for Gathercare to participate in the upcoming DITO, to function under a fully regulated framework.