The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.
The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice’s campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year’s competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.
Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.
The 2026 invitees include:
Alchemll, University of Tennessee – Knoxville Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University Aura Life Science, Northwestern University BeamFeed, City University of New York BiliRoo, University of Michigan BioLegacy, Seattle University BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University BRCĒ, Michigan State University ChargeBay, University of Miami Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve Cosnetix, Yale University Cottage Core, Kent State University Crack’d Up, University of Wisconsin – Madison Curbon, Princeton UniversityDialySafe, Rice University Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College Forge, University of California, Berkeley Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington Hydrastack, University of Chicago Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada) JanuTech, University of Washington Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada) Lectra Technologies, MIT Legion Platforms, Arizona State University Lucy, University of Pennsylvania NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada) Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University PowerHouse, MIT Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin Routora, University of Notre Dame Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech Shinra Energy, Harvard University Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany) Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill The Good Company, Michigan Tech UNCHAIN, Lehigh University VivoFlux, University of Rochester Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)
This year’s group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.
The University of Michigan’s Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.