Three events during this week’s Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) — the world’s largest and richest student startup competition — will be livestreamed.
Hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, the RBPC will gather teams from 54 universities and six countries to compete for more than $1.2 million in prizes and investments. The elevator pitch competition on Tuesday, April 6, and the live final round and awards presentation on Friday, April 9, will be broadcast on YouTube and the RBPC website.
What: 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition elevator pitch competition, live final round and awards presentation.
When (all times CDT):
Where: Watch the livestreams on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/ricealliance or at https://rbpc.rice.edu/2021-competition.
The student startups will compete in five sector categories: energy, clean tech and sustainability; life sciences and health care solutions; consumer products and services; hard tech; and digital and enterprise software.
The awards presentation will also include short updates from last year’s grand prize winner, Aurign, the second-place team, Nanopath, and the first RBPC startup to go public, Hyliion.
Past competitors have raised more than $3.1 billion in total capital, and 257 startups have gone on to be successful, including 36 acquisitions and two initial public offerings: Hyliion (2015 RBPC finalist) and Owlet Baby Care (2013 RBPC finalist).
For more information about the 2021 Rice Business Plan Competition, visit http://rbpc.rice.edu.
Rice Business has grown dramatically over the past decade, and that momentum now has a new home in Asha and Farid Virani Hall, a 112,000-square-foot building which now stands alongside McNair Hall, offering students a combined 400,000 square-feet designed to support the school’s expanding community of graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, researchers and alumni.
"Rice offers an incredibly supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem, filled with classmates, faculty, mentors, and alumni who are eager to advise and open doors. Whether the venture becomes a breakout success or simply an invaluable learning journey, Rice is one of the best environments to take that leap."
“Felix embodies the best of Rice Business. He leaves communities stronger than he found them, and I am confident his impact will continue well beyond our campus,” said George Andrews, associate dean of Degree Programs.
