At Swoop, we empower businesses to achieve their full growth potential. This case study illustrates how we partnered with a rapidly expanding medical equipment distributor in Canada to overcome a critical cash flow challenge that was hindering their ability to capitalize on growth opportunities.
This ambitious medical supply company faced a common growth hurdle: the need to balance increasing demand with the financial realities of inventory management. They had a significant opportunity to leverage valuable bulk purchase discounts for medical equipment, but the upfront costs strained their cash flow. They required a flexible funding solution to bridge this gap and enable them to invest strategically in inventory without compromising their operational liquidity. Finding the right business financing for medical suppliers was crucial for their continued expansion.
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Swoop connected the distributor with a lender specializing in Canadian business financing. We successfully secured a $500,000 line of credit, providing crucial working capital flexibility for bulk inventory purchases. This flexible financing for inventory allowed them to take advantage of cost savings and consistently fulfill customer demand. Furthermore, we identified an opportunity to optimize their existing financial structure by successfully refinancing their existing SBA loan at a lower interest rate, further enhancing their financial stability and freeing up capital for growth.
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The implemented financial solutions had a transformative impact. The distributor gained the purchasing power to invest in larger inventory volumes, improving profit margins and strengthening their competitive position in the medical equipment market. By resolving their cash flow challenges, they unlocked substantial growth potential and established a solid foundation for continued success in the Canadian healthcare sector.
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TheAppLabb is a leading North American app development company that has built over 750 apps in the last 17 years, pioneering the use of AI to create personalized, frictionless digital experiences. Founder and CEO Kundan Joshi has always believed in the power of technology to solve everyday problems and improve human experiences.
As the company scaled rapidly across geographies and expanded its AI-driven product lines, TheAppLabb needed funding to bridge key growth periods. That’s when they partnered with Swoop. Through Swoop’s support, they secured a tailored working capital loan that allowed them to move quickly — fueling innovation, supporting expansion into the U.S., and accelerating the launch of new solutions.
Kundan credits the partnership for unlocking opportunities not only for TheAppLabb, but also for their clients. “We really found Swoop as a great one-stop shop for our finance team and the Swoop team has been fantastic in matching our needs with the right solutions,” he shared. With growth in full swing, TheAppLabb continues to push boundaries in mobile and AI innovation, backed by a financing partner that grows with them.
Mannin Research is dedicated to developing innovative treatments for vascular diseases like glaucoma, kidney disease, and respiratory conditions. Their goal is to make a real difference in patients’ lives with groundbreaking therapies.
When they reached a critical point in their research, Mannin turned to Swoop for the funding they needed. With the expert support of the Swoop team, they secured the right financing and were able to quickly and smoothly expand both their team and research capacity. “Those funds helped us meet the next stage of our business, where we’re now able to hire some really great management,” George shared.
With their next financing round on the horizon, Mannin is ready to grow and form international partnerships to amplify their impact. Through ongoing collaboration with the Swoop team to meet various funding needs, they’ve built a strong, supportive relationship. As George puts it, “When I think of Swoop, I think of family.”
Nicolás Prada opened Piragua Colombian Specialty Store to share his culture and cuisine with the community. Offering homemade Colombian dishes, retail goods, and 100% Colombian coffee, his goal was to provide a taste of Colombia.
After facing rejections from banks, Nicolás turned to Swoop for funding. “Swoop made my dream possible when the banks said no,” he says. With Swoop’s quick and easy loan process, he was able to open Piragua. The process was smooth and fast, with Swoop’s team providing ongoing support and guidance.
“In less than a month, I got the loan,” Nicolás says, praising the speed and ease of working with Swoop. Thanks to the funding, Piragua is thriving, and Nicolás is gearing up to grow the brand.
Meet Rosh, the owner of H2O Float Studio, Toronto’s first float therapy center, located in the iconic Distillery District. As an athlete with a background in Taekwondo, soccer, and badminton, Rosh understands the importance of recovery and discovered float therapy as a powerful, non-invasive way to heal.
H2O Float Studio stands out by offering not just float therapy, but also registered massage therapy, unique themed floats, and even the option to float with a partner—something you won’t find anywhere else in Toronto. Thanks to funding from Swoop and its partners, Rosh was able to acquire the business and expand its offerings.
With a dedicated team that prioritizes relaxation and rejuvenation, H2O Float Studio has nearly doubled in size in the past year. Looking ahead, Rosh plans to introduce hydrotherapy, psychotherapy, red light therapy, and sound healing—continuing the mission to be Canada’s go-to destination for mind and body reset.
Irfan, a past executive leader at Canada’s largest bank, got to know about Swoop when he was helping our company expand from the UK and Ireland into North America.
While working with us, Irfan was able to gain a deeper understanding of Swoop’s offering and saw the value that it offered to business owners looking to compare the best financial products for their specific needs.
Irfan’s own business interest lay in acquiring commercial property in Britain. Knowing that Swoop had an established business in the UK, Irfan saw an opportunity to leverage Swoop’s marketplace of funders and put the platform to the test. As Daire Burke, Head of North America at Swoop says, there were a few issues in the way:
“Irfan is not resident in the UK and his co-buyer didn’t have formal real estate experience. That said, they were from a family with a history of real estate investment and had been working alongside family members to gain experience for several years. The properties they were looking at were classified as ‘high street retail’ by several lenders, which limited their appeal. This was despite their location in a highly desirable and affluent area of the country.”
The properties that Irfan and his co-buyer were looking at were occupied by several different tenants and a number of the leases were due to expire within the next two years. Daire says:
“While this presented an opportunity to renegotiate rents in the near future, lenders typically seek a minimum of five years remaining. To add some level of complexity, there was also a vendor loan for an element of the deposit, which also ruled out several lenders.”
Where the banks feared to tread, Swoop was determined to find a solution, especially as we were working with an experienced real estate investor and the properties were providing a strong yield with scope to further enhance this over time. Irfan had struggled to find UK lenders that were able to offer the funding he needed. Happily, Swoop matched him with a five-year facility on competitive terms.
Today, Irfan and his co-buyer are excited to consolidate and grow their commercial property business. Swoop is continuing to win friends and customers across the US and Canada. And as Daire says, “If you have a solid plan, whatever your background, wherever you are, if there’s a lender out there willing to work with you, we’ll pull out all the stops to make it happen.”
If you want to find out how Swoop can help your business expand. Get started today and learn all about your options.
Service in the military gives people discipline, grit and the ability to work in a team – all great attributes for an entrepreneur. When you put two military veterans together, the potential is huge.
Veterans Sean Ward and Hocque Figureoa are joint owners of a new F45 gym in Virginia Beach, near Chesapeake, Virginia.
While both had ambitions to open an F45 gym, the pair didn’t meet until after they had signed franchise agreements with the fitness company. By coincidence, the two sat next to each other at an F45 training event in Austin, Texas, and realized that they had a lot more in common than their home city.
Sean, a former Navy helicopter crew chief, says:
“Hocque and I both liked what F45 was offering as a product to customers: I love the camaraderie and It really is the world’s best workout.”
Hocque, who went to business school after service in the Marines, found that the gym offered something outside what he was doing:
“I was doing a sales job, and though I’m good at it, it wasn’t really firing me up. One day, my sister invited me to a workout at F45… and of course I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I knew this was the next step for me as a businessperson.”
After the event in Austin, the pair stayed in touch as they tried to raise funding to open their gyms.
“That didn’t pan out,” says Sean, “so we banded together and pooled resources. Even so, we still found it difficult to find a lender who could cover the startup costs. This included outlay for equipment and renovation to reach the standards we wanted our customers to experience.”
Hocque adds:
“The difficulty was in finding a lender who would work to our timescale. Everything felt very slow and difficult – they were raising objections rather than trying to make it happen. We contacted F45 to explain the situation. They put us in touch with Daire Burke from Swoop – and the rest is history.”
Daire says:
“Sean and Hocque were let down by another lender and Swoop was able to quickly arrange a term sheet to help them finance their project. We searched the market to find the most competitive rates and structure for the financing. Just as they thought they were back to square one, Swoop got them over the finish line.”
The pair agree that thanks to Swoop, the business is on track to open in March 2023: “Daire made it happen!” says Hocque. “There is no doubt that Swoop sped up the process and found lenders that worked to our time scale rather than the other way round.”
Sean says that his experience of working with Hocque, F45 and Swoop has been that by working together with the right people, great things can happen:
“Hocque and I know we can work together because our views and purpose align. In F45 and Swoop we’ve found people to speed us along our journey rather than put obstacles in the way. We joined the military to make the world a better place. F45 does that for people and Swoop has done that for us as a business.”
If your go-to funding option dries up, what would you do?
That was the situation facing our care home customer earlier this year as their original facility expired. On going back to their lender, they found that they had made the decision to pull out of the healthcare market.
This came as a severe blow to the customer who just about survived, despite turning away new residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in order to protect existing residents. Now, with the care home returning to full occupancy, profits were up – but this wasn’t sufficient for most lenders.
“After doing the right thing and surviving through the pandemic, it felt like a slap in the face to be told lenders wanted a full 12 months of data to confirm our profitability,” explained Swoop’s customer.
“Just as we felt we were bouncing back, it felt as though the rug was being pulled.”
Swoop’s Commercial Mortgage team took on the case. Ed Brown, Commercial Finance Manager at Swoop explains:
“From a business point of view, the only way was up: the home was making its way to full occupancy and becoming as profitable as it had ever been. For me, this was a business that had shown resilience, courage in taking the right actions to protect people, and I thought they deserved another chance to keep the doors open.”
Swoop worked closely with the customer’s accountant to demonstrate to lenders both the current and future trading position. Ed says:
“We were able to put together a strong case that gave us an opportunity with a lender. That lender bought into our customer as an operator and was willing to take a sympathetic view on recent performance rather than focus on the lean years of the pandemic. In the end, we secured a fixed rate loan to protect against future base rate increases with 12 months interest only and a 20 year repayment profile.”
Stuart Pawelczyk, Head of Commercial Mortgages at Swoop says that the customer is delighted with the outcome:
“This is a great example of a healthy business that will thrive now it has the correct funding deal in place. Once again, our Commercial Mortgage Team at Swoop have gone above and beyond to find solutions when other lenders say ‘no’.”
Andrea Reynolds, Founder and CEO at Swoop Funding
Three years after launching a digital platform in the UK that has enabled thousands of small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to acquire millions of pounds of financing, Swoop Finance expanded into North America.
As its point of entry to the market, the company selected Toronto, the second-largest financial centre in North America, and Ontario, the second largest tech cluster in North America.
says Andrea Reynolds, Swoop’s founder and CEO. “Toronto has the highest volume of top-quality SMEs in Canada. From here, we can get to know the market and the nuances of the SME community not just in the city but elsewhere in Canada and the U.S.”
Working directly with SMEs, in partnership with banks, non-bank lenders, advisors, chambers of commerce and other participants in the financial sector, Swoop provides a digital platform where customers can compare thousands of financial products and services, from loans, cash advances and credit facilities to equity, mortgages, grants and tax credits.
Using Swoop’s platform, they can assess their financial requirements and then gain access to appropriate financing “in one fell swoop,” says Reynolds.
The company’s technology benefits SMEs and their advisors alike.
Reynolds continues. “Serving them digitally, we can provide better service while helping them to operate more efficiently.”
In Canada, Swoop’s research has determined that 350,000 SMEs already use digital services. With open banking on the horizon, that number will increase, presenting new opportunities for Swoop, says Reynolds.
Swoop also sees opportunities in introducing Canadian SMEs to non-bank lenders. In the UK, Swoop provides white-label solutions to banks and other financial institutions, enabling them to offer a wider range of online funding products and services such as grants, equity and alternative debt. NatWest, for example, used a white-label solution from Swoop to give SME customers access not only to NatWest Loans but also to grants tailored to their business needs. Within the first week, more than 2,000 SMEs engaged with the tool.
Swoop’s expansion into North America follows a similar foray in 2020 into Australia and gives the company a similar opportunity to provide SMEs with digital financial services.
With support from organizations in England and Canada, the company identified strategic partners within Toronto’s financial services community.
Reynolds says. “We also received a lot of help from London & Partners in the UK.”
Before opening a Toronto office, Reynolds and her team had already established partnerships with more than 30 lenders in Canada. As a member of the Mayor of London’s International Business Programme, she then met in person with more potential partners in the city during a North American Trade Mission in the Fall of 2021.
With a Canadian location, two Swoop employees had no trouble emigrating from the UK while still giving them access to U.S. markets. Swoop then added three employees, hired locally, to join the team.
“The government has created an operating environment to encourage tech companies to invest, so Ontario’s R&D tax environment is now regarded as the best in the world,” says Reynolds, who learned first-hand about the financial needs of spin-off companies as a consultant to McLaren F1 Applied Technologies. “As a result, the province’s tech talent pool is phenomenal.”
As an integrated hub for financial management and planning, Swoop not only helps SMEs locate appropriate financing, it also identifies ways to save money, helping them to achieve better financial health.
For example:
“Putting the right money at the right time into the hands of business owners as they go through each stage, whether it be growth or cash crunch, is our mission,” says Reynolds, “and nothing gives me more pleasure than to see our customers flourish as a result.”
she continues. “An important factor to growth for SMEs is access to financing, and that’s the opportunity that we’re here for.”
Hilary O’Dwyer who heads up Titian Consulting in Australia offers virtual CFO services to small businesses. As a small business owner, you need outside assistance with strategic planning; financial processes, cashflow management and forecasting, reporting and compliance. The same clients often have questions about securing funding for their business including working capital loans and capital raises. The challenge is to provide them with timely information and connect them to right funding suited to their business needs.
Hilary – “I had actually come across Swoop through an event organized by the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce and thought Swoop’s product offering was fantastic. Some of my clients had been talking about financing and had been trying to access SME Government backed loans without much luck, that’s when I thought Swoop could help”
Swoop worked with Titian Consulting to assist 4 of their clients with their funding needs. The Swoop team was able to work with Hilary to understand the clients business needs and make recommendations for funding options tailored to the business’s requirements. Swoop was able to successfully assist all 4 clients with their debt applications to suitable funders and get speedy approval.
Advisor testimonial – “I have connected 4 of my clients with Swoop and all of them were successfully funded. All 4 had no backing from the big banks yet were able to take advantage of non-bank funding which shows how well Swoop works for businesses like these. This gives me confidence to refer more clients to Swoop for their funding needs”
The Challenge
AreaWealth is a technology driven investment management platform that maximises efficiencies for advisers in managing their clients’ financial needs. The Australian fintech provides a secure all-in-one platform that integrates a vast array of tools and resources through which advisers can assess, identify, and initiate targeted solutions for their clients. With their business model proven, Areawealth was eager to pursue ambitious strategic objectives to further client growth as well as expand their product offerings. In order to do so Areawealth needed access to further equity capital yet was unsure of how to navigate the equity landscape successfully.
The Solution
Areawealth initiated an equity seed capital raise with Swoop and leveraged Swoop’s expertise and connections within the equity funding space. Initially, Swoop – led by our equity expert Tim Brown – assisted in the preparation of AreaWealth’s pitch deck and presentation. Following such, AreaWealth was introduced to First Pacific Capital who would become their strategic funding partner.
The Results
With Swoop working as an intermediary and advisor to AreaWealth and First Pacific Capital throughout the process, AreaWealth was able to secure a capital raise of $2 million dollars.
Client Testimonial
“Swoop has been instrumental in achieving our desired Seed round funding objective which was oversubscribed, through an introduction of a Strategic Funding Partner – First Pacific Capital Pty Ltd. Throughout this process Tim has been strategic, collaborative and supportive working directly with AreaWealth and First Pacific Capital.”
Dean Lupton, Chief Commercial Officer – Area Wealth Administration Services Pty Ltd
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