Digital Media, Security, and Online Gaming Start-ups Garner Top Awards at Rice Alliance 9th Annual I.T. and Web Venture Forum

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HOUSTON -- (Dec. 14, 2011)– The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) announced the most promising I.T. and Web companies at the 9th annual I.T. and Web Venture Forum in Houston last week. More than 60 Information Technology and Web start-up ventures showcased their companies at the largest venture capital conference in the Southwest with more than 400 attendees, including more than 105 venture capitalists and other investors, more than 220 entrepreneurs, along with industry representatives, business leaders, and service providers.

Past start-up company presenters at Rice Alliance venture forums have raised in excess of $1.9 billion.  This year’s crop of winners is expected to achieve similar results.   The event included 108 investors and 220 entrepreneurs.

The one-day event culminated in an announcement of the

10 Rising Venture I.T. and Web Companies and 5 Most Promising I.T. and Web Companies

.

The

10 “Rising Venture” awards

were chosen from more than 60 presenters and judged by the Rice Alliance I.T. and Web Advisory Board, based on the companies’ business plan or elevator pitch presentations. The elevator pitch simulates meeting an investor on an elevator and having only 90 seconds to convince them to invest in your company.

In addition, five other new I.T. and Web companies were pre-selected by a screening board to present their 10-minute business plan presentation at the forum, and as one of the chosen five, were also named a

Most Promising I.T. and Web Company

.

Seven of the 15 companies are based in the Houston region: Datafiniti, Night Owl Games, RedFlag, ChaiOne, eyeMe, YouData, and Qukku.

The other eight companies represented:

  - Austin, Texas: Kolarity, CipherPoint, and Provenio Group
  - Dallas, Texas:  Nimbix
  - Boulder, Colorado: FlexTrip
  - Tampa, Florida: Guardian Lion Wireless, LLC
  - Columbia, Missouri:  LearningWeb
  - West Hollywood, California: Fuisz Media

Rice Alliance managing director Brad Burke, announced the winners of the Most Promising I.T. and Web Company awards at the event. “Every year the quality of companies improves. This year we had a diversity of companies including several addressing niche social media markets, security issues and on-line advertising.  As a group, the companies this year are further along. Most have developed prototypes, sold to customers, demonstrated results and raised previous funding. This makes them more appealing to current investors, who have commented on the improved quality of the companies.”

Top Five Most Promising Companies, based on their business plan presentations:

CipherPoint– (Austin/Round Rock, TX)
CipherPoint provides a content security platform to secure sensitive and regulated information in Cloud and Enterprise collaboration systems such as Microsoft SharePoint, Google Docs, Box.net, and Yammer.

Datafiniti– (Houston, TX)
Datafiniti is a search engine for data allowing individuals and companies to search for data across the web.
 

Fuisz Media– (West Hollywood, CA)
Fuisz Media is re-inventing online video advertising by deploying patented technology that allows users to click and act on anything they see.

Night Owl Games– (Houston, TX)
Night Owl Games creates immersive hardcore social games playable from Facebook and other social platforms.

RedFlag– (Houston, TX)
RedFlag is a tool for parents to protect the safety of their children on Facebook.

Rising Venture Award Companies, based on judging panel at the event:

Chai One– (Houston, TX)
ChaiONE is a leading mobile agency with a specialty in mobile sales enablement.

eyeMe  - (Houston, TX)
eyeMe provides a mobile and web community for meaningful connections and memories.

Flextrip– (Boulder, CO)
Flextrip offers the largest selection of tours & activities as an API for travel companies to use to cross sell to their travelers, increasing average passenger revenue.

Guardian Lion– (Tampa, FL)
Guardian Lion Wireless, LLC has developed LEO, a fully functional life-saving personal emergency response wristwatch with GPS locator, alert, cell phone and 9-1-1 response system technologies.

Kolarity– (Austin, TX)
kolarity has developed Cinegif is a video conversion software which allows the insertion of instant-open, instant-play high frame rate, sharp video anywhere that a still image in the form of a .gif file can be used.

LearningWeb– (Columbia, MO)
LearningWeb is BaseCamp for learning: SMEs can develop mobile, gamified learning courses in minutes and distribute them to anyone, anywhere.

Nimbix- (Dallas, TX)
Nimbix provides a simple to use web service to enable customers to process big data on accelerated cloud systems.

Provenio Group, Inc.– (Austin, TX)
We make real learning possible for all students by helping teachers and parents engage their students in healthy learning relationships.

Qukku– (Spring, TX)
Qukku is a crowdsourced platform connecting leading brands and consumers through user-generated video advertising.

YouData– (Houston)
YouData has created the first advertising system that consumers attach directly to their preferred online payment method (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, or PayPal) and use on-demand advertising to sponsor on-demand content. 

Assisting in presenting the awards included Bill Arend from Oracle Corporation and Greg Price and Karen Love from PKF Texas.  

Other sponsors of this year’s IT and Web Forum included Austin Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, Insperity, the Greater Houston Partnership, BusinessMakers Radio Show, Houston Business Journal, and Houston Technology Center.

About The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University’s nationally-recognized initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education, and the launch of technology companies.
 
Since inception, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 305 start-ups which have raised more than $1 billion in early-stage capital. More than 1,300 early-stage companies have presented at the 130+ programs hosted by the Rice Alliance and raised more than $2.0 billion in funding.

Recent recognition:
  - 2011 NASDAQ OMX Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence Award - GCEC
  - 2011, 2010, 2009 Top Ten Best U.S. Graduate Entrepreneurship Program – Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine
  - 2011 #14 Best U.S. Graduate Entrepreneurship Program – US News & World Report
  - 2011 National Model MBA Entrepreneurship Program – USASBE
  - 2009 Outstanding Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership - GCEC
  - 2009 Outstanding Technology Entrepreneurship Program – USASBE
  - 2008 Houston’s Greatest Economic Development Ally – Greater Houston Partnership

News Source : Digital Media, Security, and Online Gaming Start-ups Garner Top Awards at Rice Alliance 9th Annual I.T. and Web Venture Forum