

World's richest and largest business plan competition to award more than $1 million in prizes  


HOUSTON - (March 21, 2013) - Forty-two teams hailing from some of the world's top universities will vie for more than $1 million in prizes at the 13th annual Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) April 11-13.


The teams for this year's competition were chosen from nearly 400 entrants based on their executive summaries to compete in  five  categories: life sciences; information technology; energy and clean technology; green technology, social; and other. The teams will have 15 minutes to present business plans in the competition for a grand prize valued at more than $450,000 and the opportunity to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ OMX this fall. Judges will rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest in.


More than 125 corporate and private sponsors support the business plan competition, which includes 300 judges from the investment sector and awards more than $1 million in prizes. This year's prizes include a new $50,000 Trailblazer Capital Investment Prize and a $25,000 Women's Health and Wellness Innovations Prize, which was increased from $8,500 in 2012. This is the second year for the $100,000 U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy Prize to encourage students from across the country to create new businesses and transform promising energy technologies into innovative energy products that will help to create jobs, boost American competitiveness and strengthen the economy. Other awards include the $150,000 Investment Grand Prize from The GOOSE Society of Texas, the OWL Investment Prize of at least $150,000 offered by a group of successful entrepreneurs and investors, the $100,000 Mercury Fund Tech Transfer Investment Prize, the $100,000 Opportunity Houston/Greater Houston Partnership Technology Prize and the $100,000 Opportunity Houston/Greater Houston Partnership Life Science Prizes.


This year's competitors come from around the globe, including China, Thailand, Canada, England, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and Houston. (See below for the full list of teams.)


More than 130 past competitors have gone on to successfully launch their ventures and are still in business today. They have raised in excess of $569 million in funding and created more than 1,000 new jobs.


"The true measure of success for the Rice Business Plan Competition is the number of teams that launch, raise funding and go on to succeed in their business," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University, which hosts the RBPC. "The RBPC has served as the launchpad for a great number of successful entrepreneurial ventures and the success rate exceeds the national average.




For more information on the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition, visit http://alliance.rice.edu/rbpc.aspx.


For more information, contact Amy Hodges, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amy.hodges@rice.edu.




Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.


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Rice Business Plan Competition: http://www.rbpc.rice.edu


2013 RBPC Teams


3pDx - iTest, University of Utah.

AGcerez, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

Akiba Cooking Solutions, Colorado State University.

AME, University of British Columbia, Canada.

AQDOT, University of Cambridge, England.

Bearing Analytics, Purdue University.

Big Science, Stanford University.

Bit Harmonics, Harvard University.

BriteSeed LLC, Northwestern University.

CellCap Therapeutics Ltd., King's College London, England.

Disease Diagnostic Group, Case Western Reserve University.

EEme, Carnegie Mellon University.

Effortless Energy, University of Chicago.

Enkinta Energy, University of Southern California.

EverFile Systems, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Excalibur, Harvard University.

FlashFlood LLC, Arizona State University.

Invironment LLC, Brigham Young University.

Kaffeination, University of Manchester, England.

Manifest Diagnostics, University of Oklahoma.

Medical Informatics Corp., Rice University.

Mesdi Systems Inc., University of Central Florida.

MouseHouse, University of Chicago.

mPOSbooks, University of Virginia.

MuPor Technologies, University of Idaho.

NanoNET, Boston College.

Navillum Nanotechnologies LLC, University of Utah.

Onco Filter, Ohio State University.

Owlet Baby Monitors, Brigham Young University.

PathoS, Johns Hopkins University.

Picasolar, University of Arkansas.

Quad Technologies LLC, Northeastern University.

Rose Energy, University of Oklahoma.

Saranas, Rice University.

Seismos, University of Texas.

SensorHound Innovations, Purdue University.

SiNode Systems, Northwestern University.

SnapShop, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.

Takachar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

TaraFresh, Thammasat University, Thailand.

Vitalnx, Vanderbilt University.

VOC Diagnostics, University of Louisville.


The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is Rice University's nationally recognized initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies. It was formed as a strategic alliance of three Rice schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. Since its inception, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 250 startups, which have raised more than a half-billion dollars in early stage capital. More than 750 companies have presented at the 115-plus programs hosted by the Rice Alliance.