Smart Swimwear: The Startup Saving Lives With Wearable Tech
Executive Summary: Setting a New Global Standard for Water Safety
Swöm is transforming water safety with innovative smart swimwear designed to prevent drowning. Founded in 2022 by Niclas Ekdahl, the brand combines advanced sensor technology with airbag-inspired engineering to create swimwear that automatically inflates when needed, bringing swimmers to the surface. Swöm’s mission is to set a new global standard for swimwear safety, offering peace of mind to parents while protecting children in the water.
In this article, you’ll discover the inspiration behind Swöm, the cutting-edge technology that powers it, and how the company is navigating safety regulations to bring this groundbreaking solution to market. Niclas Ekdahl shared his incredible journey with the audience at our 3rd K2MATCH Monaco Investor Lounge, leaving a lasting impression with his passion and vision. We’re excited to take a closer look at his venture and share his inspiring story with our readers to help spread the word about this life-changing innovation.
Exclusive K2MATCH Interview with Niclas Ekdahl, Founder of Swöm
K2MATCH: What is the core vision and mission of your Venture?
Niclas Ekdahl: Our mission is to reduce the number of deaths from drowning. And our vision is to become the standard embedded safety tech in swimwear across the globe.
K2MATCH: What inspired you to start Swöm, and how did your journey unfold from the beginning to where you are now?
Niclas Ekdahl: As a parent I have worried a lot about my children's safety when they swim and play around in the water on their own. So after witnessing a child die from drowning I started thinking about this massive problem and realized that after the children stop using permanently inflated products as support there is essentially nothing keeping them safe when in water. And as an old amateur diver I then realized that using a depth sensor to monitor a child's movement in water would enable me to develop a new type of safety technology.
So with Swöm we are able to bring a user back up to the surface in case they are submerged under water for too deep and too long. We use a combination of high caliber sensor technology, our own software and components from the airbag industry to enable this. In the summer of 2022 I started thinking more and more about the problem and a potential solution and found two fantastic co-founder to set up the company and started doing rapid prototyping. We have now developed a fully working Alpha version of the product and have successfully been testing it for a year. At the moment we are working with manufacturers to set up production alongside having the product certified ahead of global launch.
Challenging the Status Quo: Swöm Technology vs. Conventional Life Jackets
K2MATCH: What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them by questioning conventional approaches?
Niclas Ekdahl: We are truly challenging the status quo in regards to water safety and I would argue we are opening up a completely new product category. Some compare our product with inflatable life jackets but there are two fundamental differences. First of all our product inflates if a user is submerged for too deep and too long. This allows a user to swim and play around with our products in water without it inflating. Traditional life jackets are built to inflate as soon as the user is in contact with water and is therefore not useful in water. And secondly, traditional life jackets are typically quite big and bulky.
With Swöm we have integrated the inflatable bladder and the sensor technology inside a UV protective swimwear. This makes it possible for the user to have complete freedom of movement in water but with an added safety lawyer in case of a drowning incident. There have of course been challenges along the way although the actual product development track has been great. One challenge, which we embrace wholeheartedly, is the fact that a product like Swöm needs to undergo rigorous third party testing and must comply with the regulations as a personal protection equipment. Therefore we have spent a lot of time and efforts into developing a product which meets the highest safety requirements which in turn takes a lot of time.
Social Impact: Addressing Global Drowning Statistics
K2MATCH: How does Swöm improve the lives of your customers and make a positive impact on the world?
Niclas Ekdahl: We develop smart swimwear which allows a user to wear the product when swimming and playing in water and still maintain complete freedom of movement. But in case of a drowning incident our swimwear inflates to bring the user back up to the surface in case the user has been submerged for too deep and too long. The problem of drowning is much bigger than I first thought. According to statistics in Europe for instance, only cancer and road accidents kill more children each year. So to provide an extra layer of safety for the user and provide some further ease of mind for the parent is our key driver.
The Power of the Team: Engineering and Leadership Expertise
K2MATCH: Who are the key members of your team, and how do their unique skills drive Swöm's success?
Niclas Ekdahl: I am a serial entrepreneur who has started and scaled a number of tech-centric companies. At least one has made unicorn status and I am convinced Swöm has the ability to become one as well. I am extremely passionate about the problem we are solving and on top of traditional financial KPIs I find it amazing to add the KPI "number of lives saved" as the core one. The core tech team consists of my co-founder and CTO Georgi alongside Dick who has a lifetime of experience from developing wearable airbag systems. Before joining Swöm Dick was responsible for the airbag system of the inflatable helmet company Hövding. Georgi is one of these tech wizards that can build pretty much anything—he holds a PhD in computer Science. And our third Co-founder is Jakob who is an ex management consultant and a true hustler that gets shit done!
Business Strategy: Direct Sales and Global Technology Licensing
K2MATCH: What is your revenue model, and how has it evolved?
Niclas Ekdahl: Initially we will market our smart Swimwear (technology) under our own brand and sell it to consumers initially in Europe in order to drive revenue and get further consumer insights. Over time we plan to rely more on licensing of our technology to leading swimwear and rash guard brands with the vision of becoming the embedded safety standard in all swimwear across the globe. The market we are targeting is worth approximately 30 billion USD per year.
Funding History and the Path to the Seed Round
Niclas Ekdahl: Swöm was incorporated in Denmark in December 2022 after receiving initial funding of 125k USD from the VC incubator Antler. During 2023 we were granted approx 200k USD in soft funding grants from the Danish Innovation fund. We closed a pre-seed round in January 2024 raising approx 300k USD from six angel investors. During 2025 our plan is to raise approximately 500,000 USD in a seed round with the main purpose for an initial launch in the Nordic market as well as provide funding for development of the next iteration of the product which will enable the licensing business model.
Connect with Swöm
Connect and engage with Niclas on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niclas-ekdahl-a446252
Summary: Redefining Drowning Prevention Through Smart Wearables
Swöm represents a fundamental shift in water safety by moving beyond passive buoyancy toward active, sensor-based intervention. By combining depth-sensing technology with rapid-inflation airbag systems, Niclas Ekdahl and his team are creating a new vertical in the $30 billion swimwear market. With a robust B2C launch in the Nordics followed by a global B2B licensing strategy, Swöm is positioned to become the "Intel Inside" of safety technology for swimwear brands worldwide. Their mission-driven approach, focused on reducing childhood drowning fatalities, offers a compelling example of how high-tech innovation can be harnessed to solve one of the world's most critical public health challenges.
