Editor’s note: The University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) will recognize several entrepreneurs at its annual Iowa JPEC Honors Celebration on April 8 at the Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City. The event highlights individuals whose work reflects innovation, leadership, and meaningful impact within their communities and industries.
As COVID-19 upended businesses nationwide, SwineTech founders Matthew Rooda and Abraham Espinosa leaned into the disruption to find opportunity.
“Ever since we were associated with [the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center], people would repeatedly say, ‘Every crisis has a good opportunity,’” Rooda said. “I remember [during COVID-19] wondering, what the heck is our opportunity?”
At the time, SwineTech’s core focus was on using voice recognition to prevent sows from laying on newborn piglets, and the technology was effective. However, the data revealed a broader challenge: Many other factors on the farm were limiting producers’ ability to consistently move pigs from birth to weaning. These additional drivers of mortality often reduced the overall return on investment, as some of the piglets saved early on were later lost to unrelated causes. Rapid changes in farm infrastructure added further complexity, making it clear that a more comprehensive approach was needed.
“Without COVID, we would have taken too long to pivot and probably would have gone out of business,” Rooda said. “COVID was our opportunity. COVID gave every company an excuse to pivot.”
A blessing for SwineTech was that it closed a funding round prior to COVID, leaving it with enough capital to think a few years down the road and make the necessary decision to pivot. SwineTech evolved into a point-of-care platform that drove quality care around all aspects of a swine operation and not solely around the automated process.
“That has really taken off,” Rooda said.
SwineTech is now operating in the United States, Canada, and Australia and is expected to be in Mexico and Spain in 2026. The company has been named Startup of the Year by the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC). In August, Inc. magazine ranked SwineTech No. 247 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. This placement puts SwineTech in the top 0.0036% of all private businesses in the United States.
And it all started with Iowa JPEC.
Rooda and Abraham attended Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa, for two years before transferring to the University of Iowa. With his sights set on becoming an obstetrician, Rooda met with the medical acceptance committee and received feedback to “be different.”
That’s where his background as a fourth-generation swine farmer paid dividends. Although Rooda never intended to pursue a career in agriculture, his experience since he was a 9-year-old doing vaccinations for random farmers helped seal the deal. At first, he received funny looks when he made his case.
“I said, what if I have a background and continue to do management in pig production?” Rooda said. “I explained the birthing management, the people management, the vaccinations, the treatments.”
It was exactly what the committee was looking for. Rooda was familiar with blood, death, getting his hands dirty managing people, and being in a high stress environment. Those attributes are often missing from people looking to enter medical school.
As a junior and senior at Iowa, Rooda worked in nursing homes and hospitals, observing how quality care and compliance was managed. He noticed synergies between what existed in long term patient care and animal agriculture.
“That helped crossing the boundary of pulling together patient management, care systems, and health care, and combining that with pig production,” Rooda said.
But while attending classes, Rooda didn’t feel as though professors were invested in his success like they were at Hawkeye. That changed when he discovered Iowa JPEC.
“I got the piece of college you expect when you go to one,” Rooda said. “JPEC truly embodies what it means to make going to a university and getting a degree worth it. You can’t just go to YouTube and get what I got from JPEC. That was special, I got to feel it. The people at JPEC were incredibly supportive in helping us gain a confidence in ourselves and connected us with mentors and advisors who have gone out there and done it.”
Headquartered in Cedar Rapids, SwineTech received a Prometheus Award for Iowa Tech Company of the Year in 2024, National Hog Farmer Producer’s Choice Award in 2020, and THRIVE-Forbes Innovation Icon Award in 2019. Rooda and Espinoza were named Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.
Awards aside, Rooda believes the real key to progress lies in how entrepreneurs confront obstacles.
“Passionately pursue excellence in whatever field you’re in,” he said. “Sooner or later, you will run into a wall; that wall is typically something everyone is facing. Go and fix that. That’s how people find the billion-dollar problems.”