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.
Growing Paper is a South African company that produces handmade, biodegradable paper embedded with seeds. Founded to give consumers the option to make a responsible decision regarding the environment, social impact, local economy and sustainability, the company is dedicated to creating employment opportunities in the Swartland municipality. This region has seen a continuous rise in unemployment reaching nearly 15 percent – with a disproportionate impact on women and children.
Roxanne Schumann, Founder of Growing Paper, says that the company has strong ambitions to grow and become a household brand for South African customers. In these early stages, however, there was a capital shortfall:
“Growing Paper was at that stage that many businesses reach where we were not cash flow positive. We were growing but had hit that in-between phase where we didn’t have the income to cover the investment we needed for equipment, international marketing and a renovation project. There’s currently a lag with our present need to pay salaries, expand and keep up the infrastructure.”
It was essential to get some form of bridging finance to stay afloat, says Roxanne, because laying off employees was counter to the values and goals of the business.
“We’re temporarily victims of our own ambition! We’re not at maximum capacity but are moving in that direction. This year we’re expanding internationally and expect to see the rewards next year. We were in the gap between expecting to grow and fully reaping the benefits of that growth.”
Growing Paper needed a Revolving Capital Facility because as Roxanne points out, there was uncertainty over when money would be coming in and when expenses would have to go out:
“We were hopefully not going to use all of the Revolving Credit available to us but had to be prepared for a worst-case scenario at a time when we were restoring a greenhouse tunnel to make it more suitable for manufacturing our product and more comfortable for our employees. That’s a big project to fund but it makes us more efficient as a business in the long term.”
Roxanne initially approached a local financial institution looking at short-term loans. Unimpressed with the options available to her, she then reached out to Swoop to investigate better deals. Swoop was able to find a lower interest rate and larger facility: win-win!
“We agreed on a Revolving Credit Facility of R550,000. Not only was it more capital for a lower interest rate, but it also arrived in the business account within a week. In South Africa, that’s basically the speed of light!”
Roxanne says that the funding success is thanks to Swoop, where the Swoop team took the lead in finding and securing the necessary funds, walking her through the journey step-by-step:
“The efficiency of the turnaround time has been really helpful. We’re fixing dates with suppliers and we’re able to quickly get that greenhouse tunnel fixed. All the pieces are in place to see us meeting our goals in the next year and seeing Growing Paper become a success story in the circular economy!”
“Conventional care fails people who have needs outside quite narrow criteria. We saw the need to expand what care can do for people and provide positive solutions to people with complex needs.”
So says Martine Verweij, Partner at Te Hira Care Home, who approached Swoop when her company needed funding to purchase a building for a bold new project. The aim is to found a working farm that provides meaningful activities for users, allowing them to retain and build skills that they can use in other aspects of their lives.
Originally from the Netherlands, Martine says that the UK is far behind her home country when it comes to care.
Martine herself joined Te Hira as a partner 18 months ago, following a career in catering and charity. With business partner Christina Robinson, the pair make a formidable double act combining experience across a range of sectors.
In their next venture, Martine and Christina will create a care facility that provides activities including horticulture, animal therapy, baking and cooking and running the household.
“People need activities to stay engaged,” says Martine. “People have needs that are not well served by requiring them to sit still and be quiet.”
Finding the right funding for the new building was a challenge, however – until Swoop was recommended by Cottons, Te Hira’s accountants, and the process of closing a deal on a commercial mortgage began.
Martine says that she immediately knew she was in safe hands:
“What I liked was the mentality I encountered. Ed Brown, Account Manager at Swoop, was not just selling me a mortgage, he really wanted to see that the solution we ended up with would contribute towards making the business work. He was very frank about what was and was not possible and I valued that honesty throughout the process.”
This honesty proved invaluable as the project encountered complications and delays. Martine describes the attitude of the Swoop team as being “creative, willing and daring – no English reserve, they just got on and got things done.”
Today, Martine has secured the funding her company needs to take the next step to making their new care facility a reality:
“After half a year of delay, we are beginning the building and are able to lock in a schedule that will see us opening our doors 24th April 2023. We are able to think about future projects now and as Swoop made me feel valued throughout this process, I won’t be looking elsewhere for funding.”
Sam Newton, Founder at Gravitate Accounting, says that the Sheffield firm prides itself on being “hands on” with the 200 plus clients on their books:
“We’re a three-year-old, up-and-coming digital accountancy practice. We don’t just do a set of accounts. We’re in contact with our clients monthly, producing KPI reports, management accounts and so forth. At some point, every business will have a need for cash.”
In the past, being asked to find funding had presented Sam and his colleagues with a dilemma:
“As a smallish firm, we didn’t have the resources to research funding in-house. We would have to speak to their bank or other funders and try to find them a good deal, but how does that work? Do you charge the client an hourly rate? And can you charge them at all if you don’t find something suitable?”
All that changed when Sam found Swoop, which uses clever matching technology to scour the market and highlight options that meet the needs of cash hungry businesses. Sam says the change has been dramatic:
“Now we just upload all the information onto a portal that Swoop provides, giving them all they need to approach various lenders. With their in-house knowledge, Swoop can target specific lenders and come back with deals for our clients.”
Swoop can handle all kinds of funding from simple credit cards to complex commercial mortgages – and plenty of little-known specialist products from niche lenders along the way. Accountants can also use the platform to find grants that their clients may be eligible for and reach out to a network of VCs for potential investors.
Sam says that when his clients ask about funding, it’s no longer a problem as Gravitate Accounting now has the right tools to help:
“With Swoop, we’ve got a really good solution in place where we can get some pretty quick answers. We’ve got a good enough relationship and trust in the guys at Swoop for them to run the conversation and do the best for our clients.”
If you are an advisor, click here to find out more about how Swoop for Advisors can help you meet the funding needs of your clients across grants, borrowing and equity: Swoop for Advisors
There are a number of routes to being your own boss. One is to come up with an idea for a new business. The other is to buy out an existing successful business.
At BCS, an outsourced IT support service based in Kent, employees bought out the founders of the company in 2018. Since becoming 100 percent employee-owned, the business has been named as one of the UK’s top 25 managed service providers and scooped a Responsible Business Champion Award.
Why did BCS need Swoop? Jo Lewellyn, Finance Director at BCS says:
“BCS moved to a 100 percent employee-owned business with a loan from the founders of the business. After the first few years of paying the founders’ loan, we felt it would be beneficial to source the funds commercially to release the founders of any obligation to our company.”
Pretty open and shut, you might think. But Jo explains why the company ran into a funding roadblock:
“As an employee owned company, we have no documented shareholders and the structure of the business along with the employee owned trust part of the company meant things were not straightforward. This unique setup meant it was difficult to source funding through the normal channels available.”
Jo approached Swoop to investigate whether there were any lenders prepared to help. Tom Hawley and Chris Richards, Funding Managers at Swoop, got on the case and presented Jo with exactly what she needed: a competitive choice of lenders, ready and enthusiastic to lend BCS the funds they needed.
For Jo, the outcome was exactly what she wanted:
“Thanks to Tom and Chris at Swoop, we were able to complete our loan and pay off the founders of the business. At BCS we like our customers to know there are some things they can confidently leave to the experts. When it comes to funding, we took our own advice and left it to the experts at Swoop.”
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’.”
Hitesh Bhokhirya is adding to his growing stable of convenience stores across the North of England – and his latest acquisition is thanks to Swoop.
Hitesh tells us:
“I’ve been in convenience stores since 2010. Early on, I used to simply go to my bank when I needed money. But when I found a store I wanted to buy, there was no finance available from the High Street. My own bank wasn’t lending to businesses and other banks didn’t want to take on someone who wasn’t already their customer.”
Hitesh thought that his business growth would stall – until he was introduced to Chris Richards, Senior Funding Manager at Swoop… who turned out to be a familiar name.
“I was introduced to Chris through my funding guy in Birmingham,” says Hitesh. “Chris was someone I had encountered before when he worked at RBS. I was delighted to be able to restart a long standing relationship and I immediately knew I was in good hands.”
Hitesh was right: Chris was quickly able to find a path to funding a third store to his portfolio by looking beyond the usual suspects to find a company with an appetite to lend.
The full acquisition of the business took over six months with both sides needing to delay proceedings for various reasons: Hitesh was concerned over the valuation of the freehold while there was some dispute over whether the business was definitely for sale.
Eventually, however, Hitesh prevailed and he is now the proud owner of stores in Doncaster, Sheffield and Pontefract. Two weeks into running the new business, Hitesh says things are “hectic – but I’ve done this before and things will calm down in three months.”
He adds that Swoop was able to help him where others either couldn’t or wouldn’t:
“This wasn’t a fast or easy acquisition for me but Swoop was with me throughout and gave me confidence that we would reach the end goal together. And we did!”
Swoop’s customer is a communications business that helps its clients improve their engagement with end users through technology.
The company’s founders were introduced to Swoop by the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce. The company had a short term cash flow issue as one of their debtors was unable to pay as scheduled.
With their quarterly VAT bill coming up, the founders knew they would not be able to meet their own commitments without outside support.
Within just three days of receiving the enquiry, Swoop managed to secure the business a VAT loan, spreading their tax bill over three payments, massively improving the company’s cash flow position.
Tom Hawley, Funding Manager at Swoop says: “It has been a pleasure working with these customers. They were always quick to respond to requests for information, which makes the process as seamless as possible. I’m looking forward to working with them both again – as we will be funding their next VAT bill along with the implementation of a longer term financing solution.”
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