Client Spotlight: Frank Bo, Founder and CEO of Swift Wellness

Finding a problem to solve inspires virtually every founder who walks through the Accelerator Centre’s doors. That discovery can happen through a current business, a capstone project in university, or, in the case of Frank Bo, a personal experience with a family business.

Bo is the founder and CEO of Swift Wellness, a platform that enables employers to offer their employees immediate access to earned wages before the standard payday. Its mission is to alleviate employees' financial stress while balancing their budgets and making essential payments like rent and childcare.

Inspired to help employees thrive

Bo’s entrepreneurial journey began while growing up in China. His uncle ran a construction company with several hundred workers. He says workers in China are paid not monthly but when the project is completed. The challenge is that most workers still had monthly living costs, including rent, food, and money to send home to their families.

“My journey is deeply rooted in the financial struggles facing these workers. I wanted to find a way to help them, and their families thrive,” Bo says.

Seeing workers at his uncle’s company struggle with managing their finances was not the only family inspiration for Swift Wellness. Bo’s father worked in finance, which gave him insights into the complexity of banking systems.

Supported by his uncle, Bo started Swift Wellness as a pilot project to provide paycheque advances. He says the project was well-received by the employees at the construction company. When Bo moved to Canada to study at the University of Waterloo, he realized there was a potential to adapt the idea to the Canadian market.

“Growing up, I witnessed the financial struggles faced by workers in my uncle's construction company in China, where delayed payments often left them vulnerable. Similar challenges are prevalent in Canada, where many individuals live paycheque to paycheque and lack access to emergency funds. More than 54% of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque, and having funds ready to pay for life emergencies, such as an unexpected car repair, is essential for millions of Canadians and their families.” he says.

Building trust

One of the more significant challenges Bo and the Swift Wellness team have faced is navigating the regulatory landscape and identifying the right tools to operate effectively in Canada. Bo says fintech is complex enough on its own, but it is even more so because of the slow progress of the open banking movement in Canada.

“This has required us to be innovative and strategic in our approach. We launched a pilot program, but we had to provide the initial funding ourselves to demonstrate our strong belief in the value of what we are building. The positive response from employees, many of whom have returned to use our services multiple times, has been encouraging,” Bo says.

Bo says the startup’s pilot program now includes 20 employers across Canada, including companies in Alberta, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. In addition to helping employees access their wages sooner, Swift Wellness also provides financial wellness education. Topics range from financial planning to building an emergency fund.

Beyond building trust with customers and their employees, Swift Wellness is also working on partnerships to extend its reach. Bo says the startup recently partnered with a major payroll provider in North America.

“This partnership will enable us to bring Swift Wellness to their customers, expanding our reach and impact significantly. We've also attracted international interest, with potential opportunities for a pilot program with an African bank. This could open new avenues for growth and demonstrate the global potential of our platform,” he says.

Getting help from the Accelerator Centre

Bo says the Accelerator Centre has been instrumental in helping his team navigate the challenges of bringing Swift Wellness to the Canadian market.

“When we first joined, Swift Wellness was primarily a concept that had gained traction in China, but we weren't sure how it would translate to the Canadian context. The mentors at the Accelerator Centre guided us through extensive customer discovery, providing invaluable one-on-one sessions that helped us validate our ideas,” Bo says.

Building local market knowledge and connections in a new country brings multiple challenges for any founder. Bo says the mentorship in digital marketing, product management, and sales has helped them make inroads they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

“The Accelerator Centre's programming and mentorship in these areas have been exceptional, equipping us with the skills and strategies needed to effectively reach and serve our audience. Their support has been crucial in transforming Swift Wellness from a promising concept into a viable business in Canada,” he said.

Swift thinking

Bo says Swift Wellness's next step is to explore more partnerships with third-party payroll providers to enhance its ability to offer short-term funding to employers. This step is critical to enabling employers to provide paycheque advances to their employees without a lot of operational setup and streamlines the connection process in just ‘one-click’.

“This will allow us to leverage their strategic reserves in a regulatory compliant manner to offer paycheque advances more broadly to their employees. Additionally, we're planning a larger and wider launch in Canada soon. Our goal is to make our app publicly available, allowing any employee to try it out, and to offer our solutions to employers of all sizes,” Bo says.

As Swift Wellness looks towards 2025, Bo says the startup's time in the Accelerator Centre has been a significant turning point for the business.

“The Accelerator Centre provided the mentorship and resources needed to refine our business model and strategy to suit the local market. The vibrant tech ecosystem at the University of Waterloo and the support from the Accelerator Centre have been instrumental in my growth as an entrepreneur,” Bo says.