Swae
Swae is an AI-powered SaaS platform that enables enterprises, DAOs, and governments to crowdsource, debate, and vote on ideas and proposals, supporting collective decision-making through structured proposal workflows, anonymous input, and AI-assisted proposal improvement.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersVancouver, Canada
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Swae does
Swae is a Vancouver-based SaaS company that operates an AI-powered collective decision-making and idea management platform. Its core product combines proposal development workflows, structured debate, voting, and anonymous contribution features to help organizations surface and act on ideas submitted by employees or community members. The platform targets three primary customer types: large enterprises seeking employee-driven innovation and engagement, Web3 DAOs requiring governance and grant-allocation tooling, and government or civic entities running citizen consultations. Notable deployments include Etihad Airways, the United Nations, COP28/UICCA, LifeLabs, MSF, EMC Insurance, and SingularityNET (where Swae powered the distribution of $1M in DAO grants). The technology stack integrates MetaMask-based web3 authentication for DAO users and OpenAI's GPT-3 API to assist with proposal quality improvement, supported by AES-256 encryption and GDPR-compliant data handling.
The company is privately held (Swae Inc, a subsidiary of Antropy Innovations) and was founded in Vancouver, Canada, with a private beta launch in January 2019. It is a distributed team with satellite offices in Brighton (UK) and Goa (India), and a high-profile advisory board spanning product, AI, decentralization, and government. Swae has raised approximately $1.17M cumulatively: an early grant of $579,525 from the Global Challenges Foundation in 2018 and a $589,134 seed round in January 2022 led by Cordelia Capital, Global Market Enterprise, Tres Monos Capital, and VentureSouq. The company was accepted into Creative Destruction Lab's Web3 accelerator stream in November 2022 and launched a climate innovation partnership (ClimateCall.com) with UICCA at COP28 in 2024. Its business model is a quote-based enterprise SaaS subscription with no publicly disclosed pricing.
Swae firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Swae
- Legal name
- Swae Inc
- Website
- https://swae.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Swae is an AI-powered SaaS platform that enables enterprises, DAOs, and governments to crowdsource, debate, and vote on ideas and proposals, supporting collective decision-making through structured proposal workflows, anonymous input, and AI-assisted proposal improvement.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Swae industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Collaborative Decision-Making & Idea Management Software
- NAICS
- Information (51)
- akta.pro primary industry
- B2B SaaS & Enterprise Personalization (CRM, Sales, Support) (HDAAAGAJ)
Keywords
Where Swae is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Vancouver
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Swae business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Subscription: Swae operates as a SaaS platform providing subscription-based access to its idea management and decision-making platform. Organizations pay for access to the platform's features including ideation, voting, debate workflows, and analytics.
- Enterprise Platform Licensing: Enterprise clients receive customized platform configurations, dedicated support, and implementation services tailored to their organizational needs and scale.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise - Full platform access with customization and support |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels11 records
Swae product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Swae is an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps organizations source, evaluate, and act on ideas from employees and stakeholders. It combines AI-assisted proposal development, structured debate, anonymous contribution channels, and voting mechanisms to enable bottom-up, idea-meritocratic decision-making for enterprises, governments, NGOs, and Web3 DAOs.
Product overview
Swae is a single AI-powered SaaS platform for collective decision-making and idea management. The core Swae Platform provides the unified infrastructure for sourcing, developing, debating, and voting on proposals. This is delivered across multiple use cases including Innovation & Idea Management, Consultations, DEI, Employee Engagement, DAOs, and Async Collaboration. Key features include the Proposal Development System for structured deliberation, anonymous submission support, AI-powered proposal quality assistance via GPT-3, and integrated voting mechanisms. The platform serves enterprises, smart cities, and Web3 DAOs with a sector-agnostic approach.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Quantifiable outcome
- 92% of employees who spoke up were more likely to want to stay with the company
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Swae
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Swae technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability3 records
Feature6 records
Swae partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.
- UICCA (UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators)flagshipSwae and UICCA launched ClimateCall.com as a crowdsourcing platform for climate innovation at COP28. This partnership focuses on enabling citizen engagement in climate solutions.
- Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)flagshipSwae was accepted into Creative Destruction Lab's web3 accelerator program, accelerating its Web3 and DAO push. CDL is one of the most respected accelerator programs in technology entrepreneurship.
- RutaniocoreSwae sponsors Rutanio, an innovative blockchain community enabling a commercial Colombian ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship and creativity. Rutanio uses Swae for innovation and community decision making.
- SingularityNETcoreSwae was chosen as SingularityNET's DAO Grant Funding Platform for their Deep Funding Program, helping distribute $1M in grants. Swae's platform supports SingularityNET's plans for progressive decentralization and community-driven governance for their DAO.
- OpenAIcoreSwae gained developer access to OpenAI's invite-only GPT-3 API to accelerate its existing AI capabilities for proposal improvement and idea enhancement within the platform.
- EMC InsuranceminorEMC Insurance Companies partnered with Swae to run a pilot program for unleashing workforce creativity and crowdsourcing ideas to drive culture and strategic innovation initiatives.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Swae competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Brightidea: Enterprise crowdsourced innovation management platform serving large organizations to source, evaluate, and implement employee ideas - directly comparable to Swae's Innovation & Idea Management use case targeting the same Fortune 500 buyer.
- IdeaScale: Enterprise and government innovation management SaaS that lets large organizations crowdsource ideas from employees and citizens - overlapping directly with Swae's enterprise and smart-cities/citizen consultation offerings.
- Viima: Idea and innovation management SaaS offering ideation boards, voting, and evaluation workflows for organizations - closest direct competitor for Swae's proposal development, voting, and evaluation features.
- Wazoku: Idea management and crowdsourcing platform powering enterprise-wide innovation challenges and employee ideation programs - comparable to Swae on both functional capabilities and target buyer (large enterprise innovation teams).
- Decidim: Open-source civic participation platform used by cities and governments for citizen consultation and participatory budgeting - directly comparable to Swae's Consultations/Smart Cities use case.
- Aragon: End-to-end DAO creation and governance framework for token communities - directly comparable to Swae's Web3 governance offering; Kleros (an Aragon-adjacent project) has a founder advising Swae, underscoring proximity.
- Planbox: Innovation management platform for crowdsourcing, evaluating, and implementing employee ideas across enterprises - functionally and customer-base aligned with Swae's enterprise innovation offering.
- Snapshot: Leading off-chain DAO voting and governance platform - competes with Swae's DAO Governance module in the same Web3 buyer segment, particularly around proposal-and-vote workflows.
Emerging players
- Tally: On-chain DAO governance and proposal platform with strong Web3-native stack - overlaps with Swae's DAO use case, especially for treasuries seeking on-chain execution alongside off-chain deliberation.
Broad incumbents
- HYPE Innovation (NTT DATA): Established enterprise innovation management suite, now part of NTT DATA, serving global enterprises with broader portfolio capabilities - comparable to Swae's enterprise offering but operating at significantly larger scale and footprint.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Swae social profiles
Digital presenceSwae compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Swae financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Swae leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Swae funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors5 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Swae M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Swae
What does Swae do?
Swae is an AI-powered SaaS platform that helps organizations source, evaluate, and act on ideas from employees and stakeholders. It combines AI-assisted proposal development, structured debate, anonymous contribution channels, and voting mechanisms to enable bottom-up, idea-meritocratic decision-making for enterprises, governments, NGOs, and Web3 DAOs.
Is Swae a public or private company?
Swae is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Swae founded?
Swae was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Swae based?
Swae is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Swae make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. SaaS Platform Subscription is the primary driver. The others are enterprise Platform Licensing.
Who are Swae's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Brightidea, IdeaScale, Viima, Wazoku, Decidim, Aragon, Planbox and Snapshot. Tally is listed as an emerging player. HYPE Innovation (NTT DATA) is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Swae have an API?
No public API is recorded for Swae.
What industry is Swae in?
Swae's product category is Collaborative Decision-Making & Idea Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAGAJ, B2B SaaS & Enterprise Personalization (CRM, Sales, Support). Its NAICS code is 51.