Connecting startups to capital, networks and success

The Rice Alliance hosts both large-scale and more intimate events to bring together investors, corporations, startups and technology ventures for deal-flow, networking and discussions. These programs incorporate company pitches, private investor dinners and personalized one-on-one investor/startup office hours. Our goal is to be a facilitator to quickly accelerate the growth and adoption of promising tech ventures. Since launch, our energy venture programs have included ventures raising $10 billion in funding—and our life science programs saw companies that raised more than $9.5 billion in funding, including 1,511 successful companies with 157 exits. 

The world's largest and richest intercollegiate student startup competition, the Rice Business Plan Competition offers an educational program mirroring real-world experience through this multi-day event for student startups from across the world. Student founders pitch to investors, receive feedback and advance their startup. Since 2001, teams have raised more than $6.1 billion in funding. 

Located in Ion District, the namesake building is the transformative centerpiece of Houston’s innovation corridor. Designed to bring our city’s entrepreneurial, corporate, and academic communities into collaborative spaces and programs. From Fortune 500s seeking flexible office space to first-time startups looking for the funding to design a prototype, the Ion provides wide-reaching space and support to connect every What if with What now?—welcoming individuals and teams of all kinds to a place to build a better way. 

Under the leadership of Rice's Office of Innovation, the Rice Alliance powers programming at the Ion.