Swaay raises €2M to scale direct-to-shape printing for beverage cans

Swaay Technologies (Swaay), an Irish industrial technology company, has closed an equity investment round of more than €2 million (US$ 2.24 million), led by Business Venture Partners (BVP) with participation from members of the BVP Investor Club. Swaay is building a full-stack platform to assist beverage co-packers and producers in adopting direct-to-shape (DTS) technology. 

This round is set to fund Swaay’s commercial rollout of its distributed DTS digital print platform for aluminum cans. 

Mark O’Donnell, chief commercial officer and co-founder at Swaay Technologies, says: “Brands care whether they can get a market-ready product in weeks, in the quantity they need, and in the markets they want to serve or test. This round helps us serve this real demand commercially.” 

Supporting shorter lead times 

The Canadian and Irish governments publicly announced Swaay’s growth plans in a joint statement during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s official visit to Ireland in June. 

The company founders have built initial management and technical teams in Mullingar, Ireland, and Quebec, Canada, to serve clients across Europe and North America from the outset. 

Stephen Burdock, head of investments at BVP, an Irish investment firm headquartered in Dublin, says: “Swaay has an operating team that has built and run manufacturing businesses before, and in this sector, execution is everything. Short-run labeling is a real and rising cost problem for brands, and cans keep taking share from other packaging formats.” 

“We have a credible plan to make DTS printing work at scale. It is a strong signal that so many members of the BVP Investor Club chose to back the team alongside us.” 

Swaay highlights that DTS printing removes plastic labels and shrink sleeves by printing artwork directly onto the container. “As a result, brands get far greater flexibility, easier recycling, and shorter lead times. 

“A billion cans a year have already moved away from plastic, as early adopters have proven the benefits,” says the company. 

“Billions more will follow as DTS closes the remaining gaps on cost, geographic availability, and quality. We are built to tackle these remaining hurdles head-on by embedding manufacturing innovation with software and data to deliver a scalable platform to drive widespread DTS deployment.” 

Swaay is currently focused on beverage cans, where the case for moving away from plastic labels is said to be the strongest.