Shell emojis, “down there,” a fabric shaped in a way that recalls female anatomy. None of it matters. Women’s health has become a taboo topic on social media.
That’s what Aima Sense has experienced firsthand — the Karlskrona-based startup previously seen on SVT’s Draknästet(Sweden’s version of Dragons’ Den). The company, led by entrepreneur sisters Cecilia Lantto Belin and Karin Belin, says it has lost millions in revenue to censorship and has pushed the issue all the way up to the government. Now the sisters are raising capital and looking for a stable partner, with the goal of becoming a global brand.
“We never give up.”
From Rocket Growth to Shadowban
“Imagine an arrow pointing straight up and then bending straight down into a crash,” is how Aima Sense’s growth trajectory is described. The company, which appeared on Draknästet, had grown organically on TikTok and built a strong community on social media. It took off from day one — a “flying start” with proof of concept and glowing customers. But suddenly, it was as if the lights went out: Aima Sense became “shadowbanned,” with reach plummeting from several hundred thousand views to around 20 views per post — a devastating blow for a young startup.
“We have always been careful in our language,” says Aima Sense CEO Cecilia Lantto Belin. “But it’s that this is about women’s health and female anatomy.”
The Business Behind the Ban
Aima Sense was founded by sisters Karin Belin and Cecilia Lantto Belin three years ago. Their mission is to support a more equal sex life, and they’ve developed, among other things, a patented tampon designed for “after-leak” — absorbing semen while restoring the body’s pH balance. No perfume, nothing extra, just pH restoration, which many women need to avoid discomfort, according to the founders.
Cecilia Lantto Belin points to market research showing that women say no to sex for hygiene reasons — having just showered, or needing to go to work shortly after. “It should be a feeling of freedom,” she says. “We know our products are loved and important. We believe in this, and we’ve received so many wonderful reviews and emails from customers. That’s what drives us.” She adds: “We’ve put everything into this, for so many years.”
Aima Sense had a genuinely strong start, appearing on SVT’s Draknästet in 2024 and landing offers from all three investors — Adeline Sterner, Hellen Wohlin Lidgard, and Jonas Tellander — before ultimately turning them down.
Shell Emojis and Censorship
Social media platforms maintain filters to catch pornographic content, but they go further than that in their pursuit of banned material. The net cast is wide: to stop sexual, graphic, or otherwise problematic content, platforms also flag words associated with the body more broadly — words used to market things like women’s health, sexual health products, menstruation, and menopause.
Cecilia Lantto Belin stresses that Aima Sense had already been careful and self-censoring even before the shadowban hit. “We talk about women’s health, but not explicitly. Many words we need to use are flagged words, and we know that,” she says. Karin Belin adds: “We’ve used the shell emoji, for example, instead of writing out the word vagina.” It didn’t help. Even an image of fabric reminiscent of the shape of a vulva was blocked.
“It’s like we end up under a microscope. You have to consider that these are companies based in the US and China, where things are more conservative, and that their policies have gotten stricter,” Cecilia Lantto Belin says.
Fighting an Uphill Battle
The sisters have gotten help from engaged contacts on both TikTok and Pinterest, without being able to escape the freeze. On Meta, they’ve worked with various agencies — Meta business partners — who have “pulled their hair out” over the situation. They’ve been told to change everything: domain, payment card, and more — a nightmare for an e-commerce business.
“There have been a thousand different attempts. But they gave up in the end,” Cecilia Lantto Belin says of the agencies. The company has also seen influencers lose the bulk of their normal views after promoting Aima Sense, which is why the duo maintains close communication with everyone who partners with the company, out of consideration for those creators.
Instead, Aima Sense has turned its focus toward partners like Apoteket AB and Danish department store Magasin du Nord. That way, despite the headwinds, the company has expanded into 15 countries and is now close to entering the massive pharmacy chain Boots.
Despite the struggle, the founders say they’ve found a loyal customer base: “Even though we’ve paid a huge amount for our customers, we’ve gotten repeat customers. Our revenue has dipped, but we’re still standing stable.”
Millions Lost
In 2025, Aima Sense had revenue just under SEK 1 million, with an operating result of minus SEK 1.9 million. The company’s founders have modeled what their numbers could look like if they’d been able to market their products freely on social media.
“We’ve lost millions because of this,” Cecilia Lantto Belin says. “We should have reached a revenue of at least SEK 5 to 10 million by now, if this were normal.”
