The Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) at the Rice University – Jones Graduate School of Business, known throughout the business community as the largest and richest business competition in the world, took place in April, awarding nearly $1.7 million for student startups.
A startup from the Jones School, TriFusion Devices, was among the top winners during the RBPC on April 16th. The company, which offers revolutionary 3-D printed products for the health care and sports-equipment industry, was selected by a group of 275 judges from the investment sector. The company came out on top of 41 other companies from universities across the globe.
This year also included new prizes, such as the $25,000 Rice Brown School of Engineering Tech Innovation Prize — awarded to Leuko from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — and the $100,000 Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Challenge Prize — awarded to Neopenda from Columbia University — among many others. Even a “People’s Choice” prize of $5,000 was awarded to Flat Medical from national Taiwan University, Taiwan. The winner was determined by a public vote via Facebook.
The 2016 competition was lauded as the most diverse competition in the 15 years since the RBPC began. Nearly 400 entrants from across the world were selected for competition in four categories: information technology/Web/mobile; energy/clean technology/sustainability; life sciences; and other. The first night of the competition tasked participants with developing both 15 minute investment pitches and 60-second elevator pitches.
In 2001, the competition’s inaugural year, the RBPC nine teams competed for a $10,000 award. In the fifteen years since, over 161 competitors have successfully launched their businesses and are still in operation today. Competitors over the last fifteen years have raised more than $1.3 billion in funding and created over 2,000 new jobs for their communities.