In Brief: Texas State team invited to compete in Rice Business Plan Competition

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
Office of Media Relations
March 31, 2017

Texas State University's TX2O team has been selected to compete against some of the world's top universities at the 17th annual Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) at Rice University in Houston, April 6-8.

TX2O enters the competition with an innovative media that can reduce the cost of treating contaminated water produced as a by-product of the oil and natural gas industry  by more than 30 percent while producing zero hazardous waste. The TX2O solution is a drop-in replacement for current technology with zero adoption cost and can be regenerated without degradation in performance.

Annually, the U.S. spends $2.5 billion on produced water management for solutions that create hazardous waste, are economically and environmentally inefficient and don't completely remove the oil from the water.

Previously, Texas State's interdisciplinary SioTeX team won the Texas Halo Fund Investment Prize during the 14th Annual RBPC in Houston in 2014. That marked the first time Texas State had received an invitation to the prestigious competition.  

The winning team will take home a grand prize valued at more than $450,000, including seed funding and the opportunity to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ. Judges select the winner based on the company that represents the best investment opportunity.

The teams for this year's competition were chosen from nearly 350 entrants to compete in four categories: life sciences; information technology/Web/mobile; energy/clean technology/sustainability; and other.

More than 163 former competitors have gone on to successfully launch their ventures and are still in business today and another 20 have successfully sold their ventures. Past competitors have raised in excess of $2 billion in funding and created more than 2,000 new jobs.

For more information about TX2O, visit tx2o.com.

For more information on the 2017 Rice Business Plan Competition and past competitors’ success stories, visit rbpc.rice.edu.

About Texas State University

Founded in 1899, Texas State University is among the largest universities in Texas with an enrollment of 38,849 students on campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock. Texas State’s 170,000-plus alumni are a powerful force in serving the economic workforce needs of Texas and throughout the world.  Designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas, Texas State is classified under “Doctoral Universities:  Higher Research Activity,” the second-highest designation for research institutions under the Carnegie classification system.