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COLLEGE STATION, May 17, 2018 – Houston-based Arovia, creators of the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD), was awarded $50,000 as the winner of the 2018 Texas A&M New Ventures Competition hosted by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES).

Arovia Co-Founder, President and CEO Alexander Wesley said he was excited to win the competition because he doesn’t consider pitching competitions to be his specialty.

“I’m definitely not a natural pitcher, but I love our product, I love our team and the state of Texas has been really great for us as well,” Wesley said. “I definitely don’t view myself as being a stellar pitch man so I had no expectation at all, but I’m glad the enthusiasm I have for our product and our team and what we’re doing for our customers comes through.”

Wesley added that the experience of competing with other companies that are in similar stages to his was a great experience.

“It’s really cool to see all the different things that people are doing. You can really get stuck in your own world so it’s fun when you get to hang out with other startups.”

Jessica Traver, one of the finals judges and winner of the 2017 TNVC with IntuiTap Medical, said that multiple aspects of Arovia impressed the judges.

“We really liked their ability to demonstrate the traction they’ve had, it’s very fast,” she said. “Obviously there’s a demand. Their intellectual property strategy is very strong which is great and will definitely come in handy in the future. They’re meeting a need that nobody else has been able to meet yet, so we’re excited to see where they go and how they’re going to scale and the revenue they’re going to be able to pull in.”

With a total of $380,000 in total prizes, the pool for the competition was the largest in the four-year history of the TNVC. In the first three years, the TNVC awarded more than $670,000 combined.

The 2018 TNVC was made possible by the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, Texas A&M College of Science, Texas A&M Health Science Center, TEES Clean Energy Incubator, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M School of Innovation, Texas A&M Division of Research, 80/20 Foundation, TMC Innovation, GOOSE Society, Aggie Angel Network, Research Valley Partnership, Amerra, Biotex, Paragon, Pioneer Natural Resources, Thomas Horstemeyer, Ramey & Schwaller Law Firm, Chevron Technology Ventures, Winstead PC and OTA Compression/Kimark Systems.

Finalists:

1st – $50,000 – Arovia

2nd – $35,000 – Admetsys

3rd – $25,000 – M&S Biotics

4th – $15,000 – VastBiome

5th – $10,000 – Advanced Scanners

6th – $5,000 – AtmoSpark

Elevator Pitch Competition:

1st – $5,000 – ResponderX

2nd – $3,000 – Yotta Solar

3rd – $2,000 –  Polar Panel

Additional Prizes:

Ramey/Schwaller IP Legal Services Prize – Advanced Scanners

Research Valley Launch Prize – ResponderX

Thomas | Horstemeyer IP Legal Services Prizes – VenoStent and Alleviant Medical

Paragon Innovation Prize – Vitls

BioTex Investment Prize – M&S Biotics

Amerra Visualization Services Prize – Arovia

TEES Cleantech Prize – Yotta Solar

Aggie Angel Network Investment Prize – Arovia

GOOSE Society of Texas Investment Prizes – Arovia and M&S Biotics

TMC Innovation Investment and Accelerator Admission Prize – Vitls

TMC Innovation Accelerator Admission Prize – VenoStent

About the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition: 

The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and The Texas A&M University System, along with a growing number of sponsors, are working to ensure today’s innovative ideas become a reality through the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition. Aimed at promoting the commercialization of emerging technology, the competition recognizes companies with high-growth potential and provides seed funding to help them effectively execute their ideas and advance product development.

Media Contact: Aubrey Bloom: Texas A&M Engineering Media Relations Coordinator Abloom@tamu.edu – 830-377-8566

TNVC competitors vie for more than $380K in cash and investment prizes

With a total pool of $380,000, $165,000 in cash and $215,000 in in-kind and investment prizes, this is the largest prize pool yet for the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC). This year’s startups include companies from across a wide spectrum of fields including healthcare, IT/software, digital health, transportation and clean energy technology.

At the May 17 competition, judges will narrow the field of 16 semi-finalists from across Texas down to six finalists. Judges for the finals are Dr. Ashok Gowda, founder and CEO of BioTex; Dave Fox, angel investor and founder of Blue Baker restaurants; Pat Matthews, founder and general partner of Active Capital; William P. Ramey III, founding partner of Ramey & Schwaller, LLP; Jessica Traver, 2017 TNVC winner and CEO of IntuiTap Medical; and Louis A. Raspino, super-angel investor member of the GOOSE Society.

The finalist and elevator pitch cash prizes are as follows:

Finalists

1st place – $50,000

2nd – $35,000

3rd – $25,000

4th – $15,000

5th – $10,000

6th – $5,000.

Elevator Pitch

1st – $5,000

2nd – $3,000

3rd – $2,000

Special prize awardees will be chosen by their sponsor, for which all 16 semi-finalists and two alternates are eligible.

The final judging round begins at 1 p.m. and is open to the public and the media. The finals will take place in the All American Club at Kyle Field.

2018 Texas A&M New Ventures Competition field announced

Three College Station startups are among the 16 semi-finalists announced for the 2018 Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC).  At the May 17 competition, judges will narrow the field of 16 semi-finalists from across Texas down to six finalists. The final judging round begins at 1 p.m. and is open to the public and the media. The finals will take place in the All American Club at Kyle Field.

This year’s startups include companies from across a wide spectrum of fields including healthcare, IT/software, digital health, transportation and clean energy technology.

At more than $350,000 in cash and in-kind services, the prize pool for this year’s competition is the largest yet. Details on specific awards will be announced closer to the competition. Since 2014, the TNVC has awarded more than $700,000 in prizes to Texas-based startups. Last year’s winner was IntuiTap Medical, a Houston-based medical device company that is developing a technology that helps physicians more accurately and efficiently place spinal needles for epidurals and spinal taps.

2018 Semi-finalists:

Admetsys — Houston
Admetsys was formed to explore the next generation of diabetes treatment technology: patient-adaptive learning algorithms, coupled with counterbalancing medication delivery. The union of these with automated blood glucose measurement and state-of-the-art visualization has created a transformative product.

Advanced Scanners, Inc. — Temple
Advanced Scanners is a seed stage medical device company, making a 3D optical scanner and computer vision system to augment a surgeon’s capabilities in the operating room.  This will improve precision, reducing the amount of brain tissue removed, reducing potentially catastrophic, but avoidable, side effects.

Alleviant Medical — Houston
Alleviant Medical is developing a minimally invasive device to treat congestive heart failure that is intended to relieve symptoms, improve quality of life and reduce hospital readmissions for more than 6 million patients suffering from this condition nationwide.

Arovia, Inc. — Houston
Arovia makes SPUD, the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display, the first and only desktop-sized display that collapses like an umbrella for portability.

AtmoSpark — Beaumont
AtmoSpark Technologies LLC develops atmospheric water generation systems that provide constant freshwater to those with limited access or in remote locations around the world. Its first product, Blu Element, enables cruising sailboat owners with unreliable water makers to reduce downtime risk up to 80 percent, saving up to $16,000 per year.

M&S Biotics — Houston
M&S Biotics is developing an autonomous internet of things solution to detect, track, count and locate surgical items within the operating room in real-time. This effectively automates the surgical counting process while providing downstream analytics regarding instrument utilization by leveraging machine learning.

Polar Panel — Houston
PolarPanel is a solar energy startup focused on bringing clean, reliable and low-maintenance refrigeration technology to the commercial cold chain. PolarPanel is specifically targeting rail by retrofitting refrigerated railcars with NASA-developed solar technology that removes the need for both battery and a large diesel generator.

ResponderX — College Station
After the deaths of two Bryan, Texas, firefighters in 2013, ResponderX was founded by a firefighter with a technical background to use emerging technology improve the safety of first responders. Their patented system allows for real-time tracking and locating of firefighters inside of buildings, something that is not currently possible.

SABER Corporation — College Station
SABER is developing an antimicrobial bandage to provide a cost-saving solution by helping hospital staff reduce healthcare associated infections. The company is utilizing blue light technology to protect patients, prevent life-threatening infections and provide cost savings to hospitals and the healthcare system.

Stream Biomedical, Inc. — College Station
Stream Biomedical is an early-stage company founded to address unmet therapeutic needs for individuals suffering as a result of neurological trauma and/or degeneration. Stream is initially developing an acute stroke therapy, a biologic drug that has shown preclinically to be neuroprotective and neuroreparative, resulting in dramatic functional improvement.

Sunrise Health — Houston
Sunrise Health is an app for text-based group therapy and peer support where patients with substance abuse or mental health conditions can receive 24/7, stigma-free support. The app uses artificial intelligence to catch clinically relevant information within messages, so existing providers can focus their time on patients most in need.

VastBiome — Houston
VastBiome applies machine-learning methods to model how the gut microbiome influences disease. The company enables pharmaceutical companies to select the best patients for clinical trial enrollment by predicting patient response to immunotherapy.

VenoStent — Dallas
A JLABS startup company from Vanderbilt University IP, VenoStent, Inc. is developing a shape memory polymer external stent to improve the quality and length of life for the more than 2 million (and growing) dialysis patients worldwide.

Verdegen — Kingwood
Verdegen’s GO! Mosquito Repellent Gel is modeled on the success of hand sanitizer and hand soap wall-mount dispensers. Verdegen’s dispenser-based products are designed to put repellents where people need them and lets communities/businesses protect their residents/customers.

Xyber — Austin
Data centers consume 3 percent of the world’s power and consume more than 160 billion gallons of fresh water each year for cooling alone. Xyber Technologies has developed a cooling system, for new and existing data centers, that reduces power consumption by 40 percent, thereby saving the average data center more than $500,000 per year.

Yotta Solar — Austin
Solar energy has become the cheapest form of new electricity generation in many parts of the world. Energy storage is required to fully utilize solar as a reliable power source. Yotta is simplifying energy storage with SolarLEAF, an industry first advanced battery that mounts directly behind solar modules drastically reducing installed cost.