SwineTech, an agtech company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, has raised $1.5 million which will allow them to begin to expand into other states and countries.

Innova Memphis and Ag Ventures Alliance both participated in the round.

SwineTech’s product, SmartGuard, prevents piglet deaths by using artificial intelligence to read data through sensors and locate exactly when and where a piglet is getting crushed and will alert the sow to roll over or stand up through the use of a vibratory signal.

“We have demand from the world’s leading producers and now are preparing to expand our technologies outside the Midwest,” Matthew Rooda, founder and CEO of SwineTech said. “Our product, SmartGuard, has proven to show results even greater than previously expected, and as a result, the business is growing.”

SwineTech will be doing a demonstration of the 2.0 version of their product in January at the Iowa Pork Congress and plans to release a second version of Smart Guard in March of next year.

SwineTech’s technology is currently displayed in the National Inventors Hall of Fame where they won the Arrow Innovation Prize at the 2017 Collegiate Inventors Competition.

SwineTech now has an ROI calculator that shows potential buyers how much money would be saved by using their Smart Guard product.