Startup Successes

Mantel, 2022 Rice Business Plan Competition, closes $30 million Series A funding round

Korion Health, 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition, is a finalist for the $1mil Hult Prize

Mesa Quantum, 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition, focused article on CNBC (from September 5)

Arovia, OwlSpark Class 3 and 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition, just received another investment from Minerva Fund

Voythos, OwlSpark Class 11, joined the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate Program

Oxylus Energy, 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition and 2023 & 2024 Energy Tech Venture Forum, named to GTL carbontech accelerator program

US Department of Energy Selects Mitra Chem, OwlSpark Founder, for $100 Million Award for Domestic Battery Manufacturing

Nanograf (previously known as Sinode Systems), 2013 RBPC winner, receives $60 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy

Starling Medical, OwlSpark Class 7 and 2020 Texas Life Science Forum Michael E. DeBakey Memorial Life Science Award Winner, is a Houston based developer of a healthcare device designed for continuous monitoring, raised $6.75 million from undisclosed investors. Starling has raised $14.3 million to date

Ayrton Energy, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3, raised $6.8M in seed financing.    

MetOx, 2008-2011 & 2019 Energy Tech Venture Forum, raised $25M in series B funding

Solidec, SBIR/STTR & I-Corps, was awarded $200,000, 1 of 17 clean hydrogen/fuel cell applications

Rice partners with BeONE Sports, Founder of Ignite & Rice Business Plan Competition Qualifier 

Banofi Leather, 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition Finalist, recognized as one of Vogue's Business 100 Innovators for 2024

Ayrton Energy, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3, NXLite, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 1, and Calwave, 2015 Rice Business Plan Competition and 2020 Energy Tech Venture Forum, were listed in Cleantech Group's Cleantech 50-to-Watch    

March Biosciences, 2024 Texas Life Science Forum, closes an oversubscribed, $28.4M Series A financing round

MetOx, 2008-2011 & 2019 Energy Tech Venture Forum, is awarded 80M in funding from DOE.    

Samay (previously known as Respira Labs), 2019 Rice Business Plan Competition, wins MedTech Innovator Grand Prize    

Helix Earth, 2024 Energy Tech Venture Forum, won the Urban Future Prize ($50k)    

1s1, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 1, raises $1.4M in Seed funding and a $2.3M in project financing

Fervo, Energy Tech Venture Forum, and NanoTech, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 1, on TIME's best inventions of 2024    

Ayrton Energy, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3, the focus of an IEEE article

Informuta, 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition Fourth Place Overall, wins 2024 New Orleans BioInnovation Center BioChallenge

Mitico, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 4, will receive $727,215CAD for R&D from NGIF

Helix Earth, 2024 Energy Tech Venture Forum, closes a 5.6M seed round    

Cindy Taff, Sage Geosystems, and Tim Latimer, Fervo Energy, Energy Tech Venture Forum Participants, were listed in Time100 Climate 2024

Mote, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 1, was one of the largest winners of the DoE's Carbon Negative Shot challenge, bringing an award of $7M to support development of a pilot plant.    

InnovationMap Houston Innovation Awards - Corrolytics, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 4, Koda Health, 2022 Texas Life Science Forum, March Biosciences, 2024 Texas Life Science Forum    

Vaulted Deep, Energy Venture Day, raises funds

EarthEn, Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3, is receiving $400,000 to model their energy storage system in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Labs

Neurable, 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition, listed as one of 9 next big things in consumer tech by Fast Company

2025 Forbes 30 Under 30

Mesa Quantum, 2024 Rice Businss Plan Competition - Science
Oxylus Energy, 2024 Rice Business Plan Competition - Energy & Green Tech
Anima Iris, 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition - Retail/E-Commerce
Flux Hybrids, 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition - Transportation/Mobility
Ronnie Martinez, Junior Partner, CEAS Investments, Rice Business Plan Competition Judge - Venture Capital
Kip Daujotas, Investment Associate, Aramco Ventures, Rice Business Plan Competition Judge and Participating Investor - Energy & Green Tech
FluxWorks, 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition - Manufacturing/Industry
Mitico, Clean Energy Accelerator Class 4 - Energy & Green Tech
Helix Earth, Energy Venture Day and Energy Tech Venture Forum - Energy & Green Tech

Galen Data, 2024 Texas Life Science Forum, has been acquired by Lauxera Capital Partners

Ayrton Energy, Class 3 Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, joins Halliburton Labs. 

NanoTech Materials, Clean Energy Accelerator Class 2, with Mike Francis, CEO, Rice MBA '12, closed an oversubscribed funding round for an undisclosed amount. 

Mitra Chem founder Vivas Kumar, who also founded OwlSpark and Ignite Entrepreneurship Trek location host, raised $60 million. 

Manoj Sinha, CEO and co-founder of Husk Power Systems, 2008 Rice Business Plan Competition | University of Virginia, named to the Time100 Climate List

Arolytics, Clean Energy Accelerator Class 1, closes seed round of fundraising over $3.5M lead by BDC Capital. 

EarthEn, Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3 and RBPC 2022, partners with Ørsted and Newlab, receives a portion of CalSEED's awards of US$4M to early-stage clean energy innovations and awarded funding from the DOE's Technology Commercialization Fund. 

Emission Critical Technologies, Class 2 Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, joins the Chevron Technology Ventures Catalyst Program. 

Quino Energy, Class 2 Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, raises a total of $4.55M of seed funding.  

Banofi Leather, RBPC 2023 competitor, wins $1M Hult Prize. 

AtmoSpark, OwlSpark Class 5, launches their first product at the Annapolis Boat Show.  

Mallard Bay, RBPC 2022 Competitor, announces move to Houston.  

Ziosk, 2006 RBPC, acquired—selling the payments processing part of their business.  

Relyion, Class 3 Clean Energy Accelerator, closed their $4.4M seed round supported by the Active Impact Investments and Planeteer Capital. Relyion is enhancing battery lifespan and performance—repurposing retired EV batteries for second-life.

Eden, Class 2, Clean Energy Accelerator, closed an oversubscribed $12M seed funding round, and a total of $21.3M to date. Eden’s Electrical Reservoir Stimulation Technology has the power to revolutionize how we recover Earth's natural resources. 

Gecko Robotics, a 2016 Rice Business Plan Competition finalist, raised $100 million in its Series C funding. Gecko Robotics develops AI-powered software and its robotics assess the safety and condition of infrastructure for industries including defense, oil and manufacturing.

Hyliion goes public on NYSE at market valuation above $2B and raises $600M in funding—the first RBPC to go public.

Arovia, led by Alexander Wesley (MBA ’16) and George Zhu (Rice ‘16), successfully launched their second Kickstarter Campaign to introduce their second product, the Splay, a 2-in-1 portable display + projector. 

Pumani (formerly InfantAir) joined the Global Innovation Exchange’s Million Lives Club by impacting the lives of 1 million babies.

Triton Anchor, Clean Energy Accelerator Class 3, secures investment from Katapult and 2023 accelerator spot—and is named a finalist for the Business Network for Offshore Wind 2023 Ventus. 

VenoStent, RBPC 2016 competitor and TLSF presenter, secures $16M series A. 

Tympanogen, RBPC Competitor, receives $3.23M from National Institute of Health to conduct clinical study. 

Cardiosense, 2020 RBPC, Northwestern University, recognized as one of Poets & Quants' 20 Highest-Funded MBA Healthcare Startups Of 2023, recognizing their $15.1M Series A raise. 

Syzygy, Rice-licensed technology and ETVF multi-time participant, raised $76 million. 

NuMat Technologies, 2012 RBPC, Northwestern University & 2023 ETVF Most Promising Co., is a global leader in metal-organic frameworks and is building the world's first industrial scale MOF campus in Chicago. 

Ictero Medical Closes $6M Series A, Co-Led by S3 Ventures

Criterion Energy Partners receives strategic investment from Patterson-UTI, and receives DOE grant supporting community-driven energy transition with Baytown.

Renewell Energy receives DOE grant. 

Rice University bioprinting startup, Volumetric, was acquired by 3D Systems. Originating in the bioengineering labs at Rice, founders Jordon Miller, Ph.D. and Bagrat Grigoryan, Ph.D. created a bioprinting platform for whole organ replacement.

Topl, founded by Christopher Georgen (Rice ’16), James Aman (Rice ’19), and Kim Raath (Rice ’20), closed a $3m seed funding round led by Mercury Fund with participation from GOOSE Capital, Chingona Ventures, Beni Venture Capital, Blue Collective, RevTech Ventures and Social Impact Capital. Topl builds blockchains that enable digital and sustainable transformation across value chains.

Every Shelter, led by Scott Austin Key (Rice ’15) and Sam Brisendine (Rice ‘14), designs, creates and delivers shelter products for those displaced by natural disasters and acts of war. Every Shelter won second place at Dubai’s International Humanitarian Hackathon.

Starling Medical (Formerly Dash), founded by Drew Hendricks (Rice ‘19), Sylvie Kalikoff (Rice ‘19) and Hannah McKinney (Rice ‘19), and now led by Alex Arevalos (Rice ‘17), won the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition with their novel approach to neurogenic bladder management.

Data Gumbo closed a $7.7 Million Series B Funding Round and named to the 2020 CB Insights Blockchain 50.

Nimbic Systems, led by CEO Sean Self a Rice MBA alum, is acquired by Mizuho OSI to Expand into Helping Protect Surgical Sites from Airborne Particulates.

Calwave successfully commissioned open-water wave energy pilot.

Medical Informatics led by Emma Fauss, CEO (PhD and RICE MBA '13), announced a partnership with Intel for the Scale to Serve Program to rapidly expand remote ICUs to 100 US hospitals.

Syzygy Plasmonics Attracts Global Investors, Raises $23 Million Series B to Electrify Chemical Manufacturing

Saranas, a Texas Life Science Forum presenter (and 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition competitor), announces their $12.8 million Series B investment led by Baird Capital.

Mission Secure Announces Series B Venture Funding to Further Advance Its Patented OT Cybersecurity Protection Platform

Tvardi Therapeutics raised $74 Million in Series B Financing to Advance Clinical Programs.

Recursion, co-founded by Rice electrical engineering alum, is Granted Orphan Drug Designation for REC-4881 for the Potential Treatment of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, and Granted FDA Fast Track Designation for REC-2282 for the Potential Treatment of NF2-Mutated Meningiomas

BioAesthetics announced a $5M Series A to Commercialize NACgraft, a Regenerative Nipple Graft for Breast Cancer Survivors

Houston health tech startup, Koda Health, received a $256,000 grant to test its product.

Membrion raises $3M for wastewater treatment tech and plans to double size of Seattle facility.

Houston-baed Cemvita Factory Inc. announced its initial closing of Series A, led by 8090 Partners, to accelerate industrial decarbonization.

Everactive Raises Oversubscribed $35 Million Series C Financing to Accelerate Growth of Batteryless Pervasive Remote Monitoring for Industry 4.0.