Startup founders from Rice University and the University of Houston came together for the 12th annual Bayou Startup Showcase July 31 at the Ion, Houston’s innovation hub powered by Rice. For more than a decade, this joint demo day for Rice and UH entrepreneurs has celebrated Houston innovation.
The showcase is the culminating event for OwlSpark, one of the accelerator programs hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and is co-hosted by UH’s RED Labs. Both universities have received the title of best entrepreneurship programs from The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine for six consecutive years. To date, 229 Rice founders have participated in OwlSpark, and their companies have raised a cumulative $116 million in funding.
This summer’s ventures addressed diverse needs such as infection sensors for dialysis care, enhanced medical artist exposure and fractional job matching for skilled mothers returning to work. This year’s cohort of Rice students included five technology startups and five small businesses with two of those ventures based on intellectual property from the university’s labs.
BestFit Learning (Nolan Connolly, Hitarth Thanki) provides an AI-powered advisor that helps K-5 homeschool families cut through the clutter of the curriculum market by analyzing each family’s wants and needs, and builds a personalized learning plan in minutes, saving parents dozens of hours of research while keeping them firmly in control.
EasilyBEE (Jessica Faith Carter) is developing a platform with a rewards component to help K-12 principals at Title I schools increase family and community engagement, so they can improve student attendance, academic achievement and social-emotional outcomes.
IntimaVision (Aiman Rahman) is developing a seal for the vaginal distention procedure to help pediatric gynecologists easily obtain vaginal images, so they can effectively diagnose and treat gynecological conditions.
JustKindHumility (Lisa Lee) creates personalized travel journals for mission travelers that combine essential humanitarian practices, reflective devotional content and space for capturing life-changing experiences, empowering users to engage sensitively with the communities they serve and to grow spiritually throughout their journey.
Klix (Romanus Ang’ina) is developing an AI agent that automates patient sourcing, enrollment and follow-up workflows to help clinical research managers solve the slow, manual task of finding and engaging qualified trial participants. Klix streamlines these steps to save time and money while accelerating study timelines.
Lizzie’s Gourmet Gains (Saika Esani, Veni Peter) offer savory high-protein dips that help health-conscious snackers who want to eat indulgently without compromising their nutrition goals by reducing snack guilt and increasing protein intake through chef-crafted and versatile products.
NextStep (Halbert Kim, Sandeep Ramlochan) is for social workers in community health clinics looking to efficiently manage large numbers of patients postdischarge. NextStep guides patients to the right resources and equips care teams with tools to track progress, manage risk, and prioritize patients with the greatest need.
PeriShield (Summan Rahman) is developing an infection sensor to help nephrologists remotely monitor dialysis patients for peritonitis, providing key insights to inform early intervention.
UCoreAlly (Jen Lu) connects stay-at-home moms with professional skills to flexible, fractional work at early stage startups and small businesses, offering curated in-house projects that ensure quality matches and long-term value.
Your Right Design (Lipi Gandhi) is a representation and positioning partner for freelance and boutique medical illustrators with scoped, science-first projects.
OwlSpark leverages the Rice Alliance’s extensive network of industry experts, investors and leaders, and each summer is customized for the cohort’s needs. The team brings in speakers and curates content that matches the businesses and stages of the entrepreneurs in its programs. Founders gain insight into the key steps needed to build a successful venture, and sessions are led by university faculty members, experienced entrepreneurs, subject matter experts, industry professionals and academic leaders.
Rice Alliance is the university’s nationally recognized initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education and the launch of technology companies. Over the initiative’s 20 years, more than 3,500 companies have participated in the programs and raised a combined $27 billion. Learn more about Rice Alliance’s startup opportunities here.