Healthcare Crowdfunding Coming to GCC Soon After Shorooq Investments Participates In ImpactGuru’s Series A Round
Press Release – INDIA: In May 2018, ImpactGuru.com, a fintech company, India’s largest healthcare crowdfunding platform announced a $2mm Series A round co-led by Apollo Hospitals Group, Asia’s largest and most trusted healthcare group and Venture Catalysts, India’s first integrated incubator. Joining this Series A Round today is Shorooq Investments, Silicon Valley style venture capital firm based in Abu Dhabi and several angel investors from the GCC region.
Healthcare crowdfunding is an alternative method of raising funds online for out of pocket medical expenses (which are not reimbursed by insurance), with the patient or his/her friends or family primarily relying on social media networks and email to mobilise donors to finance the relevant medical bills. For instance, if someone needs $50,000 to fund a medical expense, the traditional way of financing it was to go to approx. 5 close family members or friends and borrow about $10,000 each. ImpactGuru.com is disrupting this financing method through its technology platform by making it easy for people to make an appeal to say 100 people and getting each person to donate $500 each, which is a faster and more economical way to collect $50,000 than asking for help from 5 people. The additional advantage of crowdfunding is that patients do not have to repay that money back to the funders as the money provided online is a donation and not a loan.
Crowdfunding as a next generation financing method to pay for healthcare is particularly relevant for GCC’s strong middle class population as out of pocket expenses % private healthcare expenditure ranges between 50-70% in most GCC countries and the culture of generosity is increasing rapidly. A recent Cigna survey concluded that close to 50% of UAE residents are concerned that they will be unable to pay for their family’s or own medical expenses, above their mandatory employee coverage. Currently, GCC governments fund about 70% of all healthcare expenditure (est. at US$76bn by Alpen Capital). Funding this healthcare bill is increasingly challenging in the current environment of lower oil prices, aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases – particularly cancer and diabetes.
ImpactGuru.com is also keen to expand into the GCC region as more than 7mm Indian diaspora are already living there and GCC based donors already account for about 15% of donations originating outside of India on ImpactGuru.com. ImpactGuru.com is now looking to partner with private hospitals, clinics, healthtech startups, and NGOs to accelerate its GCC entry and scale its operations. ImpactGuru.com will ensure full regulatory compliance in each jurisdiction in which it operates.
Piyush Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, ImpactGuru.com said “ImpactGuru.com is thrilled to receive the backing of Shorooq Investments to scale crowdfunding in GCC and make healthcare affordable for all. The potential to use technology to crowdfund for help is limitless in the face of GCC’s accelerating smartphone, internet, and digital payments penetration. We look forward to providing the best and most cost effective patient financing solution in the market today as the first mover in the GCC region.”
Shane Shin, Founding Managing Partner at Shorooq Investments and Mahmoud Adi, Co-Founding Partner at Shorooq Investments said “Crowdfunding for medical bills and other personal causes has been one of the most successful and impactful business models around the world. Crowdfunding is just a natural progression of how financial technology makes our society more connected, collaborative and efficient. We are extremely excited about our investment in ImpactGuru.com and are already in advanced discussions to pilot this disruptive business across the GCC region.”
About ImpactGuru.com
ImpactGuru.com, a fintech company, is India’s largest crowdfunding platform for medical expenses, personal causes and nonprofits. The company was incubated at Harvard Innovation Lab in USA in 2014.
So far, ImpactGuru.com has impacted over 100,000 lives, mobilized over US$20mm across 15 countries and helped over 15,000 patients to crowdfund in last 4 years.
For more information, visit our website (www.impactguru.com)
About Shorooq Investments
“We are Founders’ Partners, Company Builders and Value Investors” is the fundamental principle at Shorooq Investments. Founded in 2016, Shorooq Investments is a leading early stage, technology focused venture capital firm in the region and is acclaimed by Forbes Middle East as the Top 20 VCs in the entire region. The Founding Partners Mahmoud Adi and Shane Shin collectively represent 15+ years of professional investment experience in venture capital and private equity in UAE, United States New York and Silicon Valley. Our mission is to propel the corporate innovation landscape in the region while focusing on technology and despite our relatively short history, we boast a portfolio of numerous exceptionally successful investments across different sectors. For more information, please visit www.shorooq.ae.
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