Mullingar-based Swaay is replacing plastic can labels with direct-to-shape printing, and the funding takes it into commercial production.
BVP has led a funding round of more than €2m in Swaay Technologies, an Irish industrial technology company headquartered in Mullingar. Members of the BVP Investor Club also invested, contributing to the overall total.
The funding will take Swaay into commercial production as it rolls out its distributed direct-to-shape (DTS) digital print platform for beverage cans. It will also support new roles at the company’s Mullingar headquarters.
Ending plastic labels on cans
The rise of smaller beverage brands has driven demand for short production runs. Today that demand is largely met with plastic shrink sleeves and labels, tens of billions of them a year worldwide. Fragmented labelling rules, deposit return schemes and tailored marketing add complexity to every run.
DTS printing removes the plastic entirely by printing artwork straight onto the can. Brands get more flexibility, easier recycling and shorter lead times. A billion cans a year have already made the switch, and billions more will follow as DTS closes the remaining gaps on cost, availability and quality.
Swaay is built to close those gaps. It combines new manufacturing technology with software and data to make DTS printing work at scale, starting with beverage cans, where the case for moving away from plastic labels is strongest.
Why we invested
Stephen Burdock, Head of Investments at BVP, said:
“Swaay has an operating team that has built and run manufacturing businesses before, and in this sector execution is everything. Short-run labelling is a real and rising cost problem for brands, and cans keep taking share from other packaging formats. Swaay has a credible plan to make direct-to-shape printing work at scale. We are proud to lead this round, and it is a strong signal that so many members of the BVP Investor Club chose to back the team alongside us.”
An experienced team
Swaay was founded in 2026 by Ciarán Gorman (CEO), Mark O’Donnell (CCO), Sébastien Baril (COO) and Jean-François Gaudreault (CTO). Together they bring decades of experience across the technology, beverage and print industries. The company has teams in Mullingar and in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, so it can serve customers in Europe and North America from the start.
Ciarán Gorman previously co-founded the Bevcraft Group. He said:
“I’ve just spent a decade on one successful international scale-up journey and I’m now ready for the next challenge. I see a huge opportunity to build and scale Swaay into a global technology-driven company from Ireland. BVP and the BVP Investor Club understood our ambition from the very first meeting, and we are delighted to have them with us on this journey.”
Swaay’s growth plans were first announced publicly in a joint statement by the Canadian and Irish governments during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s official visit to Ireland in June 2026.
About Swaay Technologies
Swaay Technologies is an Irish industrial technology company building a distributed manufacturing and printed-can platform for beverage brands. Headquartered in Mullingar, with a production and technical hub in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Swaay pairs short-run digital can production with contract fillers, distributors and partners across North America.
Media enquiries: Enda Higgins, Marketing and Communications Manager, BVP, ehiggins@bvp.ie