$1 Million in Prize Money Awarded at 2010 Rice Business Plan Competition

Houston sets the pace for entrepreneurial leadership.
New prizes push total prizes over $1 million for the first time in the 10-year history of the Rice competition!!

More than 600 people attended the 2010 RBPC Awards Banquet last Saturday.

The Rice Business Plan CompetitionTM (RBPC) awarded more than $1 million in prizes to aid new start-up businesses at the 10th annual competition. The $1 million in prizes is a new record for the competition, which was already the world’s largest and richest.

This year’s winner was BiologicsMD from the University of Arkansas. They are commercializing a new drug to treat osteoporosis that builds bones better than current alternatives. The runner-up was Rebellion Photonics from Rice University which is bringing to market the first-ever portable, real-time chemical detection optical device. The third place team is GlucaGo from Indiana University and Purdue which has a device to revolutionize the way that injectable drugs are stored and administered.

The 42 teams selected from over 420 entries represent the best universities around the world. Teams were chosen to compete in six categories: life sciences, information technology, energy, green tech, social and other technologies, in the April 15-17 event.

All 42 presented their Elevator Pitch to audience of 500 on Thursday night! Teams presented their full 15-minute business plans on Friday and Saturday.

During the first 9 years of the Rice competition, 95 past teams have successfully launched their companies (and are in business today) after competing at Rice, raising more than $223 million in early stage funding.

2010 Teams in Order of Prizes Won:  

Grand Prize - BiologicsMD

(Grand Prize Winning Team BiologicsMD showing off their multiple checks. (L-R) Misty Stevens, Paul Mlakar, Jr., Robyn Goforth, Michael Thomas) 
 

2nd Place - Rebellion Photonics

 3rd Place - GlucoGo, LLC 
 

(Rush Bartlett, II and Peter Greco, Jr. of the GlucoGo team receiving their winning check from Dennis Murphree of Murphree Venture Partners) 
 

4th Place - OrthoIntrinsics

(Dennis Murphree of Murphree Venture Partners presents team members Robert Likamwa & Steve Xu of OrthoInstrinsics their $5,000 check) 

  

5th Place - Ambiq Micro

(Ambiq Micro team members (l-R) Scott Hanson, Phil O'Niel, and David Landman receive their check from Carole Faig of Ernst & Young)
 

6th Place - Reveal Design Automations

(Charles Powell of Fulbright & Jaworski present Reveal Design Automation team members with their check. (L-R) Vimal Bhalodia, Matthew Neagle, Charles Powell and Zaher Andraus) 

 

Other Winners

Semi-Final and Shark Tank Round Winners

In-Kind Winners