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 University
• DialySafe, 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.