09 Aug August 8, 2025 – Swoop Funding Ciaran Burke & Been There, Run That Kay Koplovitz
Ciaran Burke – COO & Founder of Swoop
We won that competition, so we got about 350,000 in nondilutive
funding, plus all nine major banks in the UK had to work with us by
law for three years.
Ciaran Burke
Ciaran began his career at KPMG as a management consultant where he found a passion in growing businesses and building a community around them which brought him to build Hiive.co.uk, which he built into a creative community of over 150,000 members and 4,000 businesses. He has also acted as an advisor for Accenture. He is a passionate speaker on digital communities and has been a guest speaker at Digital Shoreditch, Guardian Masterclasses, Social Media Week, BBC Radio, BBC Radio Academy, Bristol Digital Week and Birmingham Digital Week. He is also a guest blogger for Huffington Post. In 2018, following many months of planning, securing funding, and platform development he co-founded Swoop with Andrea Reynolds. Swoop is a platform which helps businesses secure finance across debt, equity, and grants, and helps them make savings on everyday business costs. Swoop has helped over 250,000 SMEs globally secure over $2bn in financing across its businesses in the UK, Ireland, Canada, US Australia and South Africa. Swoop has secured $25m in funding to develop our offering to small businesses across investors such as Sandbox, Velocity, AB Ventures and Enterprise Ireland. Swoop won Deloitte’s fastest growing technology business in 2023 and last year Ciaran was nominated for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Outside of work, Ciaran loves all things sport, particularly his love/hate relationship for Aston Villa.
Kay Koplovitz – Chairman of Koplovitz & Co, Founder of USA Network & Sci Fi Channel and Author of Been There, Run That
I think it is changing. I think it’s healthier, and I also think it’s healthier for
men, because I think men see the value of, you know, keeping the company,
the family intact… and I think that men actually are beginning to enjoy the
role of having some responsibility and access to their children in a way
that maybe their fathers or grandfathers never had.
Kay Koplovitz
Kay Koplovitz started her amazing career by using geosynchronous orbiting satellites to broadcast the Thrilla in Manila between Ali and Frazier, opening the world to global communications. She launched the first satellite delivered basic cable network, USA Network, creating the two revenue stream model – advertising and licensing – that still exists today. It is the model that makes the cable networks so profitable. During her tenure, she built USA into the #1 ranking in prime time viewership among cable networks, for 13 consecutive years. The Company was sold in 1998 for $4.5 Billion and became a publicly listed company. Today, she is devoted to helping women build their companies and create jobs. As Chairman of Springboard Enterprises, the nation’s premier platform for connecting women with venture capital, Kay helped 481 companies raise over $5.5 billion in new capital. Springboard partners with Angel Funds, VC’s and corporations to grow great female owned companies that have yielded extraordinary growth levels and positive liquidity events for investors including IPO’s. Her latest passion is joining thought leaders at Singularity University and XPrize to brainstorm ways to bring technology innovation to commercial enterprise and better the lives of the 7 billion people around the globe.