Rice Business Plan Competition Teams Named

I received notice yesterday that the teams and schools have been chosen to compete in the 2008 Rice Business Plan Competition.  Congratulations to the 36 teams/schools!

Teams will compete in:
– Life Sciences (diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics, biotech, drug development)
– Clean Tech / Energy
– Sustainability
– Information Technology
– Consumer Products
– Nanotechnology
– Other (RFID, coatings, sensors)

Texas Teams:
Rice University
Lab Extensions

Southern Methodist University (SMU)
LAB802

Texas A&M
AiB Pharma

University of Texas at Austin (UT)
qcue

University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)
MicroTransponder

Other U.S. Teams:
University of Arkansas
TruSource Technologies

Brigham Young (BYU)
Klymit

Carnegie Mellon
NeuroBank

University of Chicago
Etoh Pharmaceuticals

Duke
Cerene Biomedics

Univerity of Georgia
Boreas Snowboards

Georgia Tech
DiagNano

Harvard
enexra

University of Illinois at Chicago
BioRegenix

University of Illinois at Chicago
HeartSounds

University of Maryland
Callinex

University of Maryland
Remedium Technologies

University of Michigan
Potentia

MIT
Aura Biotech

MIT
Project Einstein

North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Nolia Athletic Apparel

Northwestern
Wine with a Passion

Ohio State
Traycer Diagnostic Systems

Oklahoma
Perpetual Pharmaceuticals

UCLA
FiberView

Virginia
Husk Power Systems

Wake Forest
Filigree Nanotech

International Teams:
Aarhus (Denmark)
Immutell

BITS Pilani (India)
Vidyut Shakti

Cambridge (UK)
Auto TB

Hong Kong (HUST, China)
Zeopane Microneedles

IIT Kharagpur (India)
Diamas Coats

Lancaster University (UK)
GlucoFast

Waterloo (Canada)
Everlighting Innovation

Waterloo (Canada)
Throne Technologies

The competition will be held on April 3-5, in the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University, Teams will compete for more than $600,000 in awards. There are several new prizes this year including two new $100,000 cash awards from the Opportunity Houston program of the Greater Houston Partnership, plus a new $20,000 NASA Earth/Space Life Science Award. In addition, The GOOSE Society of Texas has increased their Grand Prize from $100,000 to $125,000 equity investment. The Dow Chemical Company is again offering this year a $20,000 cash prize for the “Dow Sustainability Award,”

All 36 teams are already winners and each is guaranteed to take home a cash prize.

More than 50 past competitors have gone on to successfully launch their companies, and in some cases have raised significant ($1+ million) funding as a result of participating in the competition.

The competition is open to the public. Don’t forget, like in previous years I’ll be live blogging from the judging room.

Schedule of Events
Thursday, April 3

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.: HTC Tech Champs (Note: Tech Champs is moving from Friday to Thursday)
5:30 – 8:30 p.m.:  Kick-off Reception, Company Showcase, Elevator Pitch Competition, & Texas Bar-B-Q

Friday, April 4

8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.: Semi-final Round Competition
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Reception and Finalist Announcement

Saturday, April 5
8:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.:  Wildcard Round & Challenge Round
Noon – 4:00 p.m.:  Final Round Competition
6:00 – 10:00 p.m.:  Awards Banquet – Intercontinental Hotel

Winners of the competition will be announced at the Awards Banquet, Sat., April 5, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Houston.

More Information: rbpc@rice.edu or 713-348-3443 or Web site: www.alliance.rice.edu/rbpc