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Finalists
First Place Finalist: Taurus Vascular – Houston, TX
$30,000
Taurus Vascular is a Houston-based medical device company focused on transforming the standard of care for patients with aortic aneurysms. We are developing a novel medical device technology to eliminate the negative effects of endoleaks after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). Representing a significant improvement over the current standard of care, our technology will improve procedure outcomes and allow patients to live longer, healthier lives after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.
Second Place Finalist: Predyct – Houston, TX
$20,000
Predyct enable predictive operations of climate critical assets such as wind farms for increasing production and saving cost. Our proprietary nano-engineered zero-power (NEZP) sensors continuously monitor the key infrastructure (blades, foundation). Combined with an AI model, the system uses field data for continuous learning and delivering real-time operational insights.
Third Place Finalist: FreezeNit – Dallas, TX
$15,000
FreezeNit will improve the treatment of head lice for millions of families in the US. Our innovative approach simultaneously freezes and asphyxiates lice using only cold CO2 gas, in one short, non-toxic treatment. The FreezeNit treatment for lice is a more effective, fast treatment for head lice, saving parents the time and stress of messy and failure-prone home treatments.
Fourth Place Finalist: Bridgeway Innovations – Bryan/College Station, TX
$12,000
Bridgeway Innovations develops innovative medical devices for underserved applications. Our first product is a novel antioxidant biomaterials technology for orthopedic implants. The material is engineered to promote rapid bone healing adjacent to devices in pediatric and geriatric patients who suffer from underlying conditions such as diabetes, neuropathy, and Charcot Foot. Our mission is to prevent delayed healing in high-risk orthopedic patients to improve their clinical outcomes.
Fifth Place Finalist: Glydr Galactic Holdings – Dallas, TX
$10,000
Glydr is a patented foot-operated controller for video games and VR. Glydr works out of the box with most PC video games and is quick and easy to learn, with most users up and running in minutes. We have a dozen 3D-printed prototypes actively in use with competitive esports players and prominent gamers to provide feedback as we finalize our design for production. We’re completing our F&F round, and have attracted over 450 users on our recent Kickstarter campaign.
Sixth Place Finalist: Harmony Desalting – Bryan/College Station, TX
$8,000
At Harmony Desalting, we’re dedicated to providing affordable solutions for the global water crisis. Our focus is on minimizing environmental impact, using advanced purification methods to safeguard marine ecosystems, and creating modular systems for widespread implementation. Our mission is to make freshwater accessible to all, sustainably and cost-effectively.
Elevator Pitch
Elevator Pitch First Place: Paradigm Robotics – Austin, TX
$5,000
Paradigm Robotics is developing the next generation of advanced and accessible robotic solutions to protect the brave. Paradigm Robotics flagship product, FireBot, is the world’s first high-temperature resistant unmanned search-and-rescue robot designed to safely provide firefighters mission-critical information. FireBot’s award-winning technology revolutionizes firefighting by mitigating over $6B of annual injury expenses and drastically reducing fatalities – keeping our brave heroes safe.
Elevator Pitch Second Place: Ember Sleep – Houston, TX
$4,000
Ember Sleep is building the next generation sleep apnea treatment. Sleep apnea is a harmful and common medical condition where patients stop breathing at night leading to terrible health consequences such as heart attack, stroke, and early death. Our device eliminates the need for invasive surgical procedure by offering a breakthrough in comfort and effectiveness.
Elevator Pitch Third Place: ClaraSim Systems – Houston, TX
$3,000
ClaraSim is developing personalized, virtual, surgical rehearsal for complex surgical procedures. By leveraging cutting-edge machine learning and world-class kinesthetic haptics, we aim to set a new standard of care in surgical planning and training.
Elevator Pitch Fourth Place: CryoDesalination – Houston, TX
$2,000
CryoDesalination dramatically lowers the cost and carbon footprint of separating water from salts, heavy metals, and minerals. Our patented process has multiple applications, including treating oil & gas produced water, desalinating seawater, and harvesting lithium from brines. Capex and Opex are 35 – 50% lower than reverse osmosis or thermal desalination. When using “cold waste energy” we can desalinate water at 1/10th the cost of competing processes, and with zero carbon emissions.
Elevator Pitch Fifth Place: hptech.ai – Bryan/College Station, TX
$1,000
HPTech is developing provably safe self-driving truck technologies that (1) enable freight carriers to fill their driver shortage by increasing asset utilization and (2) mitigate US and NATO military personnel shortage and allocation issues by multiplying the productivity of vehicle operators.
Special Prize Winners
Aggie Angel Network Investment Prize: FreezeNit – Dallas, TX
FreezeNit will improve the treatment of head lice for millions of families in the US. Our innovative approach simultaneously freezes and asphyxiates lice using only cold CO2 gas, in one short, non-toxic treatment. The FreezeNit treatment for lice is a more effective, fast treatment for head lice, saving parents the time and stress of messy and failure-prone home treatments.
Amerra Visualization Services Prize: Bridgeway Innovations – Bryan/College Station, TX
Bridgeway Innovations develops innovative medical devices for underserved applications. Our first product is a novel antioxidant biomaterials technology for orthopedic implants. The material is engineered to promote rapid bone healing adjacent to devices in pediatric and geriatric patients who suffer from underlying conditions such as diabetes, neuropathy, and Charcot Foot. Our mission is to prevent delayed healing in high-risk orthopedic patients to improve their clinical outcomes.
Biotex Services Prize: Taurus Vascular – Houston, TX
Taurus Vascular is a Houston-based medical device company focused on transforming the standard of care for patients with aortic aneurysms. We are developing a novel medical device technology to eliminate the negative effects of endoleaks after endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). Representing a significant improvement over the current standard of care, our technology will improve procedure outcomes and allow patients to live longer, healthier lives after abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.
BVEDC Launch Prize: Paradigm Robotics – Austin, TX
Paradigm Robotics is developing the next generation of advanced and accessible robotic solutions to protect the brave. Paradigm Robotics flagship product, FireBot, is the world’s first high-temperature resistant unmanned search-and-rescue robot designed to safely provide firefighters mission-critical information. FireBot’s award-winning technology revolutionizes firefighting by mitigating over $6B of annual injury expenses and drastically reducing fatalities – keeping our brave heroes safe.
Capital Factory Investment & Services Prize: ParaDocs Health – Houston, TX
ParaDocs Health provides a tech-enabled service for primary care organizations with Medicare Advantage plans. We utilize automation and augmented intelligence to fill and report patient assessment forms to health plans, offering instant feedback and prescriptive analytics via an executive dashboard. We identify and assist in closing care gaps. This allows organizations to track and manage their progress in Value-Based Care (VBC) effectively.
Energy Tech Nexus Prize: Predyct – Houston, TX
Predyct enable predictive operations of climate critical assets such as wind farms for increasing production and saving cost. Our proprietary nano-engineered zero-power (NEZP) sensors continuously monitor the key infrastructure (blades, foundation). Combined with an AI model, the system uses field data for continuous learning and delivering real-time operational insights.
Flathead Forge Services Prize: Solidec – Houston, TX
Most chemicals today are made from fossil fuels with fossil fuels. At Solidec, we extract the most sought-after molecules from the most sustainable sources, using only renewable energy. We use electrolyzers to source carbon/oxygen from air and hydrogen from water to make a variety of chemicals and fuels, without any fossil emissions. With our breakthrough technology, it is our mission to reverse decades of emissions and generate carbon-neutral chemicals.
Invincible Spaces Prize: ParaDocs Health – Houston, TX
ParaDocs Health provides a tech-enabled service for primary care organizations with Medicare Advantage plans. We utilize automation and augmented intelligence to fill and report patient assessment forms to health plans, offering instant feedback and prescriptive analytics via an executive dashboard. We identify and assist in closing care gaps. This allows organizations to track and manage their progress in Value-Based Care (VBC) effectively.
Knobbe Martens Legal Services Prize: ClaraSim – Houston, TX
ClaraSim is developing personalized, virtual, surgical rehearsal for complex surgical procedures. By leveraging cutting-edge machine learning and world-class kinesthetic haptics, we aim to set a new standard of care in surgical planning and training.
Paragon Innovations Engineering Services Prize: FreezeNit –
Dallas, TX
FreezeNit will improve the treatment of head lice for millions of families in the US. Our innovative approach simultaneously freezes and asphyxiates lice using only cold CO2 gas, in one short, non-toxic treatment. The FreezeNit treatment for lice is a more effective, fast treatment for head lice, saving parents the time and stress of messy and failure-prone home treatments.
Proxima Services Prize: Bridgeway – Bryan/College Station, TX
Bridgeway Innovations develops innovative medical devices for underserved applications. Our first product is a novel antioxidant biomaterials technology for orthopedic implants. The material is engineered to promote rapid bone healing adjacent to devices in pediatric and geriatric patients who suffer from underlying conditions such as diabetes, neuropathy, and Charcot Foot. Our mission is to prevent delayed healing in high-risk orthopedic patients to improve their clinical outcomes.
Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner IP Legal Services Prize: Predyct (Houston, TX) & Paradigm (Austin, TX)
Predyct enable predictive operations of climate critical assets such as wind farms for increasing production and saving cost. Our proprietary nano-engineered zero-power (NEZP) sensors continuously monitor the key infrastructure (blades, foundation). Combined with an AI model, the system uses field data for continuous learning and delivering real-time operational insights.
Paradigm Robotics is developing the next generation of advanced and accessible robotic solutions to protect the brave. Paradigm Robotics flagship product, FireBot, is the world’s first high-temperature resistant unmanned search-and-rescue robot designed to safely provide firefighters mission-critical information. FireBot’s award-winning technology revolutionizes firefighting by mitigating over $6B of annual injury expenses and drastically reducing fatalities – keeping our brave heroes safe.
Stibbs & Co. Legal Services Prize: Ember Sleep – Houston, TX
Ember Sleep is building the next generation sleep apnea treatment. Sleep apnea is a harmful and common medical condition where patients stop breathing at night leading to terrible health consequences such as heart attack, stroke, and early death. Our device eliminates the need for invasive surgical procedure by offering a breakthrough in comfort and effectiveness.
Southwest Pediatric Device Consortium Cash Prize: Bridgeway (Bryan/College Station, TX)
Bridgeway Innovations develops innovative medical devices for underserved applications. Our first product is a novel antioxidant biomaterials technology for orthopedic implants. The material is engineered to promote rapid bone healing adjacent to devices in pediatric and geriatric patients who suffer from underlying conditions such as diabetes, neuropathy, and Charcot Foot. Our mission is to prevent delayed healing in high-risk orthopedic patients to improve their clinical outcomes.
Winstead Legal Services Prize: FreezeNit – Dallas, TX
FreezeNit will improve the treatment of head lice for millions of families in the US. Our innovative approach simultaneously freezes and asphyxiates lice using only cold CO2 gas, in one short, non-toxic treatment. The FreezeNit treatment for lice is a more effective, fast treatment for head lice, saving parents the time and stress of messy and failure-prone home treatments.
Winners’ Circle Legacy Prize: Ember Sleep – Houston, TX
Ember Sleep is building the next generation sleep apnea treatment. Sleep apnea is a harmful and common medical condition where patients stop breathing at night leading to terrible health consequences such as heart attack, stroke, and early death. Our device eliminates the need for invasive surgical procedure by offering a breakthrough in comfort and effectiveness.
Semifinalists
Semifinalist: Additive at Scale – Bryan/College Station, TX
Additive at Scale leverages advanced manufacturing technologies to assist companies and individuals with technology development and scale-up manufacturing. We are a premier end-to-end solution provider on a mission to accelerate innovation through Advanced Rapid Manufacturing Solutions (ARMS). We think big, start small, and act fast – bridging the gap between 3D printing and injection molding. Contact us to learn more about our bridge tooling capabilities.
Semifinalist: Ark Power Technology Company – Dallas, TX
ARK Power Technology has developed novel rechargeable battery technologies including an innovative structure of a solid-state Li-S battery. Subject to additional reliability testing and manufacturing, its Li-S 500 Wh/kg solid-state battery is ready for commercialization. Proprietary technology includes a nanometer-thick molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) film-coated Li metal anode, a catalyst-assisted 3D carbon nanotube fiber (CNF) S cathode, and solid-state electrolytes.
Semifinalist: Articulate Labs – Dallas, TX
Articulate Labs builds wearable medical devices that amplify muscle growth throughout everyday activity to help patients conquer functional limitations and to restore physical capability. Their first device will address pain and dysfunction-worsening thigh muscle atrophy for 15M in the US seeking knee treatment and another 1M recovering from knee surgery.
Semifinalist: Pike Robotics – Austin, TX
Pike Robotics designs and builds inspection robots that can go into hazardous locations to collect necessary data, vital to repair and maintenance work. Our beachhead market is inspection of petrochemical storage tanks with robots, making the entire process safer, less costly, and more accurate, which also helps to reduce a large source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Semifinalist: Southwest Yeast Lab – Austin, TX
Southwest Yeast Lab LLC is a Central Texas based company strategically positioned to provide the highest quality yeast cultures and analytical services to breweries, distilleries, and wineries in Texas. Our dedication to consistency, reliability, and viability is what drives this company to serve our community as a leader in the yeast supply industry.
Alternates
Alternate: ByteTrail – Dallas, TX
ByteTrail is solving one of the biggest problems in digital transformation for many industries: the systematic and automatic update of industrial IoT devices. We have built the “Windows update” for Internet of Things devices. 75% of 20 Billion devices are in critical states of inattention. We can address the very large and very disorganized state of this problem with modern technology. A $500B problem with no good solution today.
Alternate: IllumaRas – Houston, TX
IllumaRAS is a biotech startup developing metabolic biomarkers for precision cancer imaging. The company pioneered a precision imaging technology with a focus on developing a metabolic biomarker, ILR-103. This technology has the potential to enhance sensitive tumor and margin detection, as well as accurate staging in patients, not only during initial surgical resection and diagnosis but also in post-therapy and post-surgical maintenance and surveillance.
