After receiving applications from over 440 startups from around the world, the Rice Business Plan Competition has named 54 startups to compete in the 2021 event.

Touted as the world's largest and richest student startup competition, RBPC, which is put on by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, takes place April 6 to 9 this year. Just like 2020, RBPC will be virtually held.

"In the midst of a chaotic year, I'm excited to bring good news to deserving startups," says Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones Graduate School of Business, in a video announcement. "For the second year now, we'll bring this competition to you virtually, and while we'll miss welcoming you to Houston, we see this as an opportunity to lower the participation barrier for startups."

Per usual, the competition will be made up of elevator pitches, a semi-finals round, wildcard round and live final pitches. The contestants will also receive virtual networking and mentoring.

"The virtual competition will still bring with it the mentorship, guidance, and, of course, the sought after more than $1 million in prizes, including $350,000 investment grand prize from Goose Capital," Rodriguez says in the video.

Over the past 20 years, the competition has seen over 700 startups go on to raise $2.675 billion in funding. The 2021 class — listed below — joins those ranks.

The 2021 RBPC startups include:

• Candelytics, Harvard University
• Paldara Inc., Oklahoma State University
• Bruxaway Inc., University of Texas
• Smoove Creations, Northern Kentucky University
• Flowaste Inc., University of Notre Dame
• Polair, Johns Hopkins University
• Kit Switch, Standard University
• Kegstand, Colorado University at Boulder
• Bullyproof, University of Arkansas
• AI Pow, Texas A&M University
• Solbots Technologies, BITS Pilani
• Lelantos Inc., Columbia University
• Early Intervention Systems, George Washington University
• Phenologic, Michigan State University
• AI-Ris, Texa A&M University
• Lira Inc., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Shelly XU Design (SXD), Harvard University
• Transform LLC, University of Virginia
• Almond Finance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Aspire360, Columbia University
• Mindtrace, Carnegie Mellon University
• Renew Innovations, Chulalongkorn University
• MentumQR, University of Western Ontario
• Hubly Surgical, Johns Hopkins University
• FibreCoat GmbH, RWTH Aachen University
• LFAnt Medical, McGill University
• GABA, Morehouse School of Medicine
• EasyFlo, University of New Mexico
• SwiftSku, Auburn University
• Floe, Yale University
• blip energy, Northwestern University
• Cerobex Drug Delivery Technologies, Tufts University
• M Aerospace RTC, CETYS University
• NASADYA, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
• Flux Hybrids, NC State University
• ANIMA IRIS, University of Pennsylvania
• Big & Mini, University of Texas at Austin
• OYA, UCLA
• ArchGuard, Duke University
• Padma Agrobotics, Arizona State University
• VRapeutic, University of Ottawa
• SEAAV Athletics, Quinnipiac University
• Adatto Market, UCLA
• Karkinex, Rice University
• AgZen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Blue Comet Medical Solutions, Northwestern University
• Land Maverick, Fairfield University
• Anthro Energy, Stanford University
• ShuffleMe, Indiana University Bloomington
• ElevateU, Arizona State University
• QBuddy, Cornell University
• SimpL, University of Pittsburgh
• Ichosia Biotechnology, George Washington University
• Neurava, Purdue University