The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) at Rice University has unveiled the eight high-potential ventures selected for the third annual Lilie Summer Venture Studio accelerator program. Summer Venture Studio is Rice’s accelerator for high growth, high ambition founders, offering a deep dive into venture building and equipping student-led teams with the funding, mentorship and resources needed to bring their bold ideas to life.
Representing a range of industries from prosthetics powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to next-gen chip packaging, the selected teams will each receive $15,000 in nondilutive funding, dedicated workspace and hands-on support from Lilie’s team and mentor network. Over the summer, these founders will refine their products, grow their ventures and prepare to make an impact far beyond the hedges.
Lilie continues to foster an environment where entrepreneurial thinking and action can flourish. The Summer Venture Studio is one of many initiatives that demonstrate the university’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of leaders and innovators. This year’s cohort was chosen from a record-breaking pool of applicants, a testament to the entrepreneurial energy pulsing through every school and discipline at Rice.
“The Summer Venture Studio continues to be a cornerstone of our mission at Lilie: to empower Rice students to move from idea to impact. We’re thrilled to support these ventures as they grow over the summer and beyond, bringing their ideas from campus to the community,” said Kyle Judah, Lilie executive director. “These founders are building the future right now. They are hungry to launch bold ideas, and we are ready to give them the space, capital and mentorship to make it happen.”
The eight selected teams for the 2025 Lilie Summer Venture Studio are:
- Aurelia Vitals
- Founders: Alisha Menon
- Aurelia Vitals replaces cords with code, advancing wireless innovation in healthcare to empower patients and care teams with more accurate, personalized health data and insights
- Haast Autonomous
- Founders: Jason Chen | Santiago Brent | Ege Halac
- Haast Autonomous leverages advanced aerial technology to revolutionize medical transportation, enabling fast, reliable and secure delivery of critical supplies
- HEXAspec
- Founders: Tianshu Zhai | Chen-Yang Lin
- HEXAspec unlocks the next era of computing with novel materials to enhance chip protection, lower cooling costs, and add 10% more computing power to GPUs
- Kaducia
- Founder: Samek Rangarajan
- Kaducia is developing AI for the healthcare industry, giving more power back to patients and time back to clinicians
- LabShare
- Founders: Mingyo Kang | Daniel Kuo
- LabShare is the world’s first platform that combines seamless resource sharing and AI-driven lab inventory management to help labs get the most bang for their buck.
- Morph Labs
- Founder: Pranai Reddy
- Morph Labs is building the brain’s foundational model for motor control by noninvasively harnessing thought and turning it into action on any device, starting with prosthetic hands
- Nudge
- Founders: Benjamin Rubin | Yining Zhang
- Nudge brings the “social” back to social media by making in-person connections the foundation of digital sharing
- yAI
- Founder: Yassin Hafid
- yAI is helping financial institutions adopt generative AI technology
More than half of participating ventures have successfully raised preseed or seed rounds of funding since the accelerator program launched in 2023, and participating ventures have gone on to be accepted to YCombinator, the LAUNCH accelerator, the National Science Foundation’s Activate Fellowship and Argonne National Laboratories Chain Reaction Innovations research commercialization fellowship.
For more information about the Lilie Summer Venture Studio and other Lilie programs, please visit www.entrepreneurship.rice.edu or https://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/rice-startup-accelerator.