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Danish startup’s tech-enabled jewellery to tackle sexual harassment
With jewellery that doubles as a discreet safety device, Danish startup All U Me is combining social impact with innovation to address the significant impact of sexual harassment on women’s health and wellbeing.
One in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence, and around half have experienced sexual harassment since the age of 15. The misconception that these incidents always occur late at night and in dark alleyways overlooks the reality of these experiences, which for many women are a part of everyday life.
The Government Equalities Office reports that almost 72 per cent of the UK population has experienced sexual harassment at work in their lifetime. Research shows that 56 per cent of women have experienced harassment in gyms, while 60 per cent of women had been harassed while running, and 11 per cent stopped running altogether as a result.
“It’s the everyday experiences that are the problem,” Dorte Caroline Knudsen (pictured above), founder of Danish startup All U Me tells Femtech World.
“It’s not just walking down a dark street in the middle of the night, it’s the everyday, in the supermarket, on the bus, where you experience feeling unsafe or your boundaries not being respected. It’s the mental load that women are expected to carry, almost without talking about it, to get home safely. I can get home safe; I’m not the problem.”
After 14 years as head of products at a Danish software company, at the age of 47, Knudsen felt called to channel her skills into more purposeful entrepreneurship. Inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and anger at the global prevalence of gender-based violence, she began looking into what solutions were currently being developed to address it.
“It was sad to see that none of the solutions said anything about prevention,” she says. “All the focus was on normalising what is going on and putting the responsibility on women.”
In response, Knudsen has created a solution that aims to empower women, while also shifting “safety” from an individual to a collective responsibility.
“The beauty of feeling free”
All U Me has designed a range of jewellery featuring delicate gold and silver chains and ocean-inspired charms, which double up as an alarm system to enable them to call for help when they feel unsafe.
“Tech is wonderful, but it can do more when it’s put into something beautiful, which is very rarely seen in the tech space,” says Knusden.
“Most of the existing solutions were one-size-fits-all, but women don’t work like that. We want to wear something that makes us feel beautiful.”
As well as being beautiful to look at, the jewellery is practical. Fully waterproof and with a battery life lasting up to four years, it is designed to be worn all the time, making it “probably the first real wearable”, according to Knusden.
Each item has a discreet button, linked via Bluetooth and GPS to an app connecting the wearer to nearby bystanders. This may be friends or family who have downloaded the app to their phone specifically for this purpose, or other All U Me users in the local area.
If a woman finds herself in an uncomfortable or unsafe situation, three firm pushes of the button notify up to 20 nearby bystanders or ‘backups’ with her location, alerting them to the incident so that they can intervene.
The app trains all users in the 5D bystander intervention method – distract, delegate, delay, direct, document – in as little as three minutes, so they can choose the approach that feels right at the time.
This is designed to break down some of the barriers that may prevent people from stepping in, such as not noticing, not being sure whether help is wanted, or not knowing what to do, Knudsen explains.
“The feedback we get from the workshops we do is that people like to have a framework. Empowering bystanders, by telling them ‘this is what you need to do’, and ‘this is when you need to do it’, makes people a little bit more inclined to help,” she says.
“It’s no more genius than the technology that already exists, and there are times when it might not work, but that’s why the feeling of security is so important, because that’s the everyday benefit of this.”
According to All.u.me’s focus groups, 98.8 per cent of people being trained in these methods feel there’s at least one thing they can do the next time they witness harassment, while 76 per cent who saw harassment after attending the training reported that they intervened.
“The jewellery is just one element,” Knudsen continues.
“It’s actually much more about the feeling of safety and belonging to a community that I hear our users appreciate every day, and the dialogue around it. Maybe it’s telling your loved ones why you want this jewellery, or maybe it’s somebody on the bus, or the bus driver, the bartender, or the guy at the fitness center who has the app. It’s not a guarantee, but that’s where the social responsibility kicks in, and of course, our most important job is to make sure that people have the app.”
Reframing femtech
Safety and sexual harassment can be overlooked in the femtech sector. Both the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control classify sexual violence as a major public-health issue, and evidence shows that these experiences can not only have a significant impact on mental health but can also lead to physical symptoms and an increased risk of developing chronic conditions, contributing to long-term health disparities.
One recent study found that women who had experienced being stalked and/or obtained a restraining order had a 41 per cent and 70 per cent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, respectively. Other research has shown that women with a history of violence are around twice as likely to develop chronic pain conditons and are over-represented among women with conditions such as chronic pelvic pain, IBS, and migraine.
In many ways, All U Me expands the understanding of femtech, centering safety as a foundation for health and equality. But Knusden is wary of being labelled as a ‘femtech’ company.
“The fact that safety is not seen as femtech is quite weird, actually, when statistically so many of us will experience harassment,” she says.
“But I also want to acknowledge that there are so many people who can benefit from this. It’s not just about gender equality, it’s for anybody who may feel unsafe in society.”
Not a jewellery brand, but a tech enabler
The more people who have the app, the more effective the tool is. While women can create their own networks from anywhere by asking friends and family to download the app, it works most effectively in more populated urban areas where more users are likely to be within a 1 km range.
Since launching in June, All U Me now has 2,000 active subscribers in Copenhagen. There are plans to expand into Sweden, Germany, and the UK, but partnerships with existing jewellery brands – to integrate its safety devices into their existing designs – will be crucial for helping this technology reach more women.
“There are so many jewelry brands in the world, I don’t want to be another one,” says Knusden.
“We want to be a technology enabler. Our vision is to empower and inspire everyone – people, brands, organisations – to stand against harassment, whether they do it by downloading the app, or partnering with us to make the jewellery. This is how we will scale through these partnerships.”
She has big ambitions, believing All U Me could be the “first social impact unicorn”, combining scalable tech, commercial sustainability, and philanthropy.
“I have global ambitions with this, but I also have philanthropical ambitions, in the sense that I believe that every young girl and woman should be able to feel safe and be who they are, Knusden adds.
Sharing her experience of using All U Me, one woman described her sense of safety as going from a “two to a four out of five”.
“Her feeling of safety doubled,” Knusden emphasises. “It’s not a 100 per cent guarantee, but it meant that she stopped carrying her keys between her fingers. If we can make people feel safer, and if we can make it easier for bystanders to act, then we can change the world.”
By Con Raso, managing director, Tuned Global
Music and movement are neurologically intertwined. Tempo influences pace, rhythm supports endurance, and familiar tracks can reduce perceived exertion.
Beyond physiology, music creates shared moments. It sets the atmosphere, builds anticipation and turns individual activity into collective experience.
For sports, wellness and fitness brands, this means music selection needs to align with brand values, customer experiences and emotional outcomes.
Well-chosen music increases workout intensity and duration, improves customer retention, strengthens brand recognition, creates community and cultural relevance, and opens new partnership models.
When delivered through properly licensed, data-informed systems, these outcomes become measurable and scalable.
Music also gives brands a way to stay culturally connected to their audience. The question for operators is how to use music strategically and legally.
This is especially important because the way brands approach music has changed significantly.
Early adoption in wellness, fitness and leisure centres often meant plugging in a Spotify playlist and hoping for the best.
Today’s leading sports and fitness innovators are far more sophisticated, curating music experiences that are brand-led, data-informed, tailored to specific audiences and workouts and fully licensed for commercial use.
This shift is being powered by specialist music technology platforms like Tuned Global, which works behind the scenes with brands to manage licensing, catalogue access, analytics and distribution at scale.
Rather than forcing sports brands to become music experts, these platforms allow them to offer legally compliant music in commercial environments, control curation across locations or content formats, and adapt music to different activities and intensities.
Through advanced APIs and centralised cloud infrastructure, operators can manage licensing, catalogue access and music governance at scale, while maintaining full creative control.
They also provide the reporting required by rights holders and integrate music into apps, devices, wearables and connected platforms. The result is music that feels intentional, on-brand and deeply embedded in the experience.
Music in action
Lululemon Studio and Mirror: At-home Fitness and Health
When Lululemon acquired Mirror, it marked a shift towards fully connected, at-home fitness where content, coaching and atmosphere converge.
Music plays a key role in making those workouts feel immersive and motivating, especially without a physical studio or shared space.
Instructors needed access to curated, commercially licensed music delivered consistently across live and on-demand workouts, while remaining compliant with music rights regulations.
Tuned Global provided Lululemon Studio with a branded playlisting app solution that enabled instructors to curate fully licensed music tailored to each workout.
Drawing from a licensed commercial catalogue and supported by usage reporting to rights holders, the system ensured compliance while giving instructors the flexibility to design high-energy, brand-aligned sessions.
The result was a seamless blend of movement, coaching and sound that makes digital workouts feel immersive and premium.
Psycle London: Performance Led Experiences
Con Raso
Boutique fitness studio Psycle London has built a loyal following by transforming workouts into performance-led experiences where music is central to the brand.
Each class is choreographed to sound, with instructors designing sessions that build emotional peaks and sustained intensity.
As Psycle expanded its digital and on-demand offering, it needed a way to give more than 70 instructors access to fully licensed commercial music while protecting the business from legal and reputational risk.
Tuned Global delivered a branded playlisting app that enabled Psycle’s instructors to search a cleared commercial catalogue by artist, genre or BPM, preview full tracks and build tailored playlists for classes ranging from high-intensity rides to strength and conditioning.
Behind the scenes, the music is delivered through secure API infrastructure integrated into Psycle’s own platform, with automated reporting to rights holders and support across label and publishing negotiations.
By combining creative flexibility with licensing governance, Psycle were able to scale its music-led experience across studio and digital environments without compromising on brand integrity, compliance or operational control.
Steezy: Movement and Music
Steezy, one of the world’s leading online dance platforms, sits at the intersection of sport, movement and music.
For dancers, music is not background sound. It defines timing, style and expression.
As Steezy scaled internationally, music became both its greatest asset and its biggest operational challenge. Delivering classes built around commercial tracks created both operational complexity and significant licensing risk.
Tuned Global provided the licensed music catalogue delivery infrastructure that enabled Steezy instructors to search a cleared catalogue, curate playlists tailored to specific classes, and prepare sessions using full commercial tracks.
The system ensured that music used across Steezy’s app and desktop platform was properly licensed and reported to rights holders, supporting global expansion without exposing the business or its creators to legal liability.
By combining instructor-friendly tooling with robust licensing governance, Steezy was able to continue growing its international dance community while keeping music at the centre of the experience.
A wider wellness ecosystem
For wellness, sports, fitness and leisure operators considering deeper music integration, a few principles stand out.
First, treat music as a product feature. It should support the outcome you want, whether that is higher intensity, calm recovery, emotional connection or brand recognition.
Second, get licensing right from day one. Using consumer streaming services in commercial environments exposes brands to legal and reputational risk.
For example, In 2019, more than 20 music publishing groups filed a $150 million copyright lawsuit against Peloton, alleging the company used more than 1000 unlicensed songs in its workout videos.
In another example, just last year the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia ordered a Sydney gym chain owner and five of his companies to pay more than $235,000 in damages and interest after operating multiple locations without a valid OneMusic licence.
Third, give creators freedom while maintaining brand control. Instructors, coaches and athletes bring personality, so give them tools to curate music safely within brand guidelines.
Last but not least, use data to refine the experience.
Track how music impacts engagement, completion rates and retention, because music is measurable. Finally, think cross-platform.
Your music strategy should work across physical venues, mobile apps, connected devices and on-demand content. Consistency builds trust.
What’s ahead for music as a performance tool
Music in wellness will become even more adaptive. As AI, biofeedback and real-time analytics become more embedded in fitness technology, music will increasingly respond dynamically to heart rate, pace or emotional state.
Early implementations in health and performance environments are already demonstrating how adaptive music can optimise outcomes.
As wearable technology and connected fitness continue to evolve, music will play an increasingly central role in shaping personalised experiences.
The infrastructure choices operators make now will determine how easily they can adopt these capabilities later. Those who invest early in licensed, data-informed music systems will be best placed to innovate without risk.
Music is a performance tool, a brand asset and a powerful lever for engagement. The examples above show that this applies at every scale, from a single boutique studio to a global combat sports brand.
The most successful innovators understand that when music and movement align, something special happens. With the right technology and licensing in place, that can scale.
About Con Raso, Managing Director of Tuned Global
Con Raso is an entrepreneur passionate about innovation, new technologies, and start-ups.
Over the last few decades he has focused on creating innovative mobile and online distribution models within the B2C entertainment market, enabling brands to utilise music as a marketing tool, via unique customer engagement strategies.
Being inherently well-versed in both technology and music, Con ensures our solutions are aesthetically pleasing, engaging and disruptive.
About Tuned Global
Tuned Global is the leading data-driven Cloud Music Platform that empowers businesses to integrate commercial music into their apps or launch complete streaming experiences using advanced APIs, real-time analytics, licensing solutions, music intelligence and customisable white-label apps.
Our turnkey solutions for music, audio, and video, coupled with a broad ecosystem of third-party music tech integrations, make us the most comprehensive platform for powering digital music projects.
We streamline complexities in licensing, rights management, content delivery and music discovery, enabling rapid innovation and bringing new ideas to life.
Since 2011, we’ve supported 40+ companies in 70+ countries — across telecom, fitness, media, aviation, and more — to deliver innovative music experiences faster and more cost-effectively.
For more information, visit www.tunedglobal.com.
Only 18 per cent of UK workplaces have a menopause policy, according to a new survey. while half of 1,000 women said they feel supported during menopause at work.
The study found that 37 per cent of respondents said their employer does not provide any menopause support at all.
The new study, commissioned by women’s wellness specialist Serenova for International Women’s Day, surveyed perimenopausal, menopausal or post-menopausal women aged 30 or over.
Elle Sheppard, global head of marketing and communications at Serenova, said: “Mid-life women have so many pressures to face, the last thing they need is to feel like they have to suffer in silence at work, or worse, get forced into leaving a career they love due to a lack of support.
“Going through the menopause, including the peri and post stages, can last for years; this isn’t just a ‘flash in the pan’ day when you don’t feel your best, it’s a long period of lacking confidence, feeling exhausted and putting up with physical pain too.
The findings come as the government launched its gender pay gap and menopause action plan guidance on 4 March 2026, which will be compulsory for large businesses by April 2027.
Women working in healthcare and social services reported feeling the most supported, with 57 per cent agreeing they feel “somewhat” or “very” supported.
This was followed by public services, law and security at 53 per cent, education and non-profit at 52 per cent, and business, finance and professional services at 48 per cent.
Women working in retail reported feeling the least supported, at 44 per cent.
Among healthcare and social services workers, 36 per cent said their employer does not provide any support provisions, 22 per cent said their workplace had a menopause policy and 16 per cent said their employer provided counselling support. Just 7 per cent had access to menopause leave.
In comparison, 15 per cent of retail workers said their workplace had a menopause policy, 8 per cent had counselling and 10 per cent had menopause leave.
This was higher than in healthcare and social services, where just 7 per cent had menopause leave.
Regionally, workers in London reported feeling the most supported, with 59 per cent agreeing they feel “somewhat” or “very” supported, nine per cent higher than the national total.
The South East followed at 55 per cent, while Yorkshire and the Humber ranked lowest at 45 per cent.
Sheppard said: “Serenova was launched on International Women’s Day last year, with a goal of helping women take charge of their wellbeing so they can navigate this life phase with clarity and confidence.
“As we celebrate our first anniversary, we wanted to find out how supported women really feel, to shine a light on the reality of navigating midlife as a woman.”
A new daily menopause pill approved for NHS use could bring relief to women with debilitating hot flushes and night sweats.
Around 500,000 women are expected to be eligible for the treatment, which experts say could help those unable to take hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.
The drug, fezolinetant, also known as Veoza, is a daily non-hormonal tablet designed to target the brain signals that trigger some of the most disruptive menopause symptoms.
In final draft guidance published today, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended the 45mg tablet for women experiencing moderate to severe hot flushes and night sweats.
More than two million women in the UK are thought to suffer these symptoms during menopause, often beginning during the earlier stage known as perimenopause.
For many, the effects are severe, disrupting sleep, affecting concentration and straining relationships. In some cases women are even forced to cut back on work.
An estimated 60,000 women in the UK are currently out of work or on long-term sick leave due to severe menopause symptoms, costing the economy roughly £1.5bn a year.
Research also suggests one in 10 women has left the workforce entirely because of a lack of support.
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