Rice Business Plan Competition winner to ring Nasdaq opening bell Oct. 10

MEDIA ADVISORY

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Mary Lynn Fernau
713-348-5374
mlfernau@rice.edu

Rice Business Plan Competition winner to ring Nasdaq opening bell Oct. 10

HOUSTON – (Oct. 4, 2016) – The 2016 winner of the Rice University Business Plan Competition (RBPC) — TriFusion Devices from Texas A&M University — will ring the Nasdaq Stock Market opening bell at 8:30 a.m. CDT Monday, Oct. 10.

Credit: shutterstock.com/Rice University

TriFusion Devices CEO Blake Teipel will be joined by Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which hosts the annual business competition, as well as Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, and Valerie Taylor, senior associate dean at Texas A&M University’s College of Engineering.

A live webcast of the Nasdaq opening bell will be available at https://new.livestream.com/nasdaq/live and www.nasdaq.com/about/marketsitetowervideo.asx.

What: Ringing of the Nasdaq opening bell.

When: Monday, Oct. 10, 8:30 a.m. CDT. The opening bell ceremony begins at 8:15.

Where: Nasdaq MarketSite, 4 Times Square, 43rd and Broadway, Broadcast Studio, New York City.

TriFusion Devices’ technology promises to produce 3-D printed parts with mechanical properties that rival conventionally manufactured parts, setting the stage for a 3-D printing revolution. Their materials technology allows for the first time post-printing fit adjustment of the final socket. This saves time, labor and materials by eliminating the residual limb plaster-casting process and the current need for test-fit sockets. The company can deliver a durable, custom-fit device in a matter of hours instead of weeks. TriFusion Devices won nearly $400,000 of the more than $1.7 million in cash and prizes awarded at the world’s richest and largest student startup competition April 14-16.

Described by Forbes magazine as “the Super Bowl and World Series of business plan competitions,” the 2016 RBPC brought 42 university teams from across the globe to pitch their new technology businesses to more than 275 venture-capital and investor judges. Judges evaluated the businesses based on the investment potential.

Since the RBPC’s inception in 2001, more than 161 former competitors have gone on to successfully launch their ventures and are still in business today. They have raised in excess of $1.8 billion in funding and created more than 2,000 new jobs. Another 18 have successfully exited with a market value of more than $386 million.

For more information, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at 713-348-6775 or jfalk@rice.edu.

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Follow the Rice Alliance via Twitter @RiceAlliance.

Related materials:

Webcast:

https://new.livestream.com/nasdaq/live

Feed information:

Fiber Line (Encompass Waterfront): 4463

Gal 3C/06C 95.05 degrees West

18 mhz Lower

DL 3811 Vertical

FEC 3/4

SR 13.235

DR 18.295411

MOD 4:2:0

DVBS QPSK

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Photos:

To obtain a high-resolution photo of the market close, go to www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_events.stm and click on the market close of your choice.

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is Rice University’s nationally recognized initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies. It was formed as a strategic alliance of three Rice schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. Since inception in 1999, more than 1,700 early-stage companies have presented at the 170+ programs hosted by the Rice Alliance and raised more than $3.1 billion in funding.