Since Gigacover’s market entry into the Philippines in December 2021, the team has registered an overall growth of 180 per cent, expanding its focus into additional industries such as business process outsourcing and manpower. Gigacover has also doubled its local headcount to better support its growing presence.
Gigacover has grown its customer base and revenue by more than 100 per cent, driven by the closing of new clients as well as the launch of new products. Along with Earning Protection Insurance, Gigacover has launched Employee Benefits in January 2022 to provide comprehensive coverage for full-time employees at an affordable cost, aiming to provide inclusive worker benefits beyond the gig economy. This has translated to an increase in the users of Gigacover’s products by nearly 10 per cent.
Earnings Protection Insurance has emerged as one of the most popular products in the Philippines for Gigacover. As the first of its kind in the region, Earnings Protection Insurance provides informal workers access to paid medical and sick leaves – a benefit that is typically associated with regularised employees. Expanding into serving salaried workers, Gigacover’s Employee Benefits is a comprehensive and competitively priced product to cover full-time employees. Participating organisations would be able to provide comprehensive benefits for their employees such as Inpatient and Outpatient services, Hospital Room and Board, Annual Physical Examinations (APE), Comprehensive Wellness Program, as well as Emergency and Preventive Care Benefits. Leveraging the Philippines e-Commerce boom, Gigacover has also introduced Parcel Insurance to provide affordable coverage for different categories of parcels with a highly efficient claims process.
In addition to Gogo Xpress powered by QuadX, which has recently renewed its partnership with Gigacover for the coming year, Partipost has also come on board in January 2022 with the aim of providing employee benefits for its full-time staff. Delivery platforms Pick-A-Roo and When In Baguio among others have most recently been added to Gigacover’s client portfolio in February 2022, extending enhanced coverage and protection for their gig workers and employees.
“We are grateful for the trust that our clients and partners have placed in us, an essential factor behind our success. Our growth momentum reaffirms the value that Gigacover can bring to the Philippines’ gig economy with our strategy of offering right-sized products. This has provided the basis for the innovation of our new offerings, tailored to the unique needs of the local markets,” said Sebastian Raphael San, Country Manager of Gigacover Philippines and Singapore.
In comparison to the independent workforce in broader Southeast Asia, Gigacover has observed increased priorities being placed by the Philippines’ gig economy in areas such as personal accidents and income protection. These are often deciding factors influencing gig workers’ decisions to work for a certain matching platform. Gig workers are also focusing on having access to a level of security that their regular salaried counterparts typically enjoy exclusively. Moving into 2022, Gigacover aims to launch Motor Excess Reduction into the Philippines by Q2 2022, reducing the financial liability in the event of accidents which will be especially useful for professionals such as delivery riders that spend most of their working day on the road.
“We’ve successfully processed our first Earnings Protection (Outpatient Benefit) claim, enabling a rider from Gogo Xpress to recover his lost income for his leave of absence while on bed rest. We hope that these improved benefits will continue to help our clients attract and engage with their employees, and will be instrumental in advancing our objective of empowering underserved segments of the local workforce with enhanced coverage and financial stability for inclusive growth,” added Sebastian.
In the near term, Gigacover’s immediate priorities are to continue growing its customer base by as much as 90 per cent, and further optimising its claims experiences so that users can look forward to receiving their payouts faster. It will also continue its push to cover 100,000 informal workers in the Philippines by the end of 2022. Gigacover will also look to expand to more industries, such as construction, to continue to provide inclusive worker benefits and co-create new products specifically tailored to different business needs.
