{"id":60980,"date":"2025-04-29T19:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60980\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T19:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:18:13","slug":"veloci-running-wins-1st-prize-at-prestigious-rice-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60980\/","title":{"rendered":"Veloci Running wins 1st prize at prestigious Rice competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rice University student-founded companies took home a total of $100,000 in equity-free funding at the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/entrepreneurship.rice.edu\/napier-rice-launch-challenge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship&#8217;s H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Known as the NRLC, the venture competition features Rice University&#8217;s top student-founded startups. The competition is open to undergraduate, graduate, and MBA students at Rice. <\/p>\n<p>Five finalists were <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.innovationmap.com\/rice-nrlc-finalists-2025-2671753017.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">named earlier this year<\/a> to pitch their five-minute pitch before the Rice entrepreneurship community on April 22. Each startup walked away with equity-free investment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/velocirunning.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOoqMt9oq7jW9jeZPx5w64Ikk91d4Ix91Obtr3cdn250rwLgT1bFf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Veloci Running<\/a> took home the first-place prize and $50,000. The company was founded by <a href=\"https:\/\/news.rice.edu\/news\/2025\/senior-spotlight-tyler-strothman-25-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tyler Strothman,<\/a> a former track and field athlete and senior at Rice majoring in sport management.<\/p>\n<p> Inspired by the foot pain he suffered due to the narrow toe boxes in his running shoes, Strothman decided to create a naturally shaped shoe designed to relieve lower leg tightness and absorb impact.<\/p>\n<p>SteerBio took home second place and $25,000. The startup has a patented single-surgery hydrogel solution for lymphedema. It was founded by Mor Sela Golan, Martha Fowler and Alvaro Moreno Lozano. Lozano was recently named to the <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.innovationmap.com\/rice-business-plan-competition-2671839659.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2025 Rice Innovation Fellows cohort<\/a> and Golan was named a Commercialization Fellow.<\/p>\n<p>Third place, and $15,000, went to Labshare, which is an AI-powered web app that streamlines lab inventory and resource sharing. It was founded by Julian Figueroa Jr, John Tian, Mingyo Kang, Arnan Bawa and Daniel Kuo.<\/p>\n<p>Other winners included: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>Outstanding Undergraduate Award and $2,500: Kinnections <\/li>\n<li>Audience Choice Award and $2,000: Labshare <\/li>\n<li>Interdisciplinary Innovation Prize sponsored by OURI and $1,000: Haast Autonomous<\/li>\n<li>Frank Liu Jr. Prize for Creative Innovation in Music, Fashion, &amp; the Arts and $1,500: Craftroom<\/li>\n<li>Outstanding Achievement in Artificial Intelligence Prize and $1,000: Kaducia<\/li>\n<li>Outstanding Achievement in Social Impact Prize and $1,000: Kinnections<\/li>\n<li>Outstanding Achievement in Consumer Goods Prize and $1,000 : Actile Technologies<\/li>\n<li>Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare Innovations Prize and $1,000: Haast Autonomous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The NRLC, open to Rice students, is Lilie&#8217;s hallmark event. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hexaspec.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HEXASpec<\/a>, which develops inorganic fillers that improve heat management for the semiconductor industry, <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.innovationmap.com\/rice-university-lilie-hexaspec-2024-2668097885.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won the event last year<\/a>. The team also <a href=\"https:\/\/energycapitalhtx.com\/ceraweek-pitch-winners-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won this year&#8217;s Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition<\/a> during CERAWeek in the TEX-E student track.<\/p>\n<p>Lilie also announced its 2025 Rice Innovation Fellows cohort and its first-ever Commercialization Fellows cohort this month. <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.innovationmap.com\/rice-business-plan-competition-2671839659.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rice University student-founded companies took home a total of $100,000 in equity-free funding at the annual Liu Idea&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[51,3134,31569,31559,31570,31560,31561,31562,31563,31564,31568,31566,16,15,31567,31565],"class_list":{"0":"post-60980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-labshare","11":"tag-liu-idea-lab","12":"tag-liu-idea-lab-for-innovation-and-entrepreneurship","13":"tag-napier-rice-launch-challenge","14":"tag-nrlc","15":"tag-pitch-competition","16":"tag-rice-university","17":"tag-startup-competition","18":"tag-steerbio","19":"tag-tyler-strothman","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-veloci-running","23":"tag-venture-competition"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114422867945198125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}