Lancaster University in world's largest business competition

​A team from Lancaster University is the only UK team selected to take part in the world’s biggest competition for graduates with an entrepreneurial flair.

The Rice University Business Plan competition in Texas offered prizes last year of more than a million dollars.

Forty two teams have been selected from over 400 applications from round the world to go to Houston and pitch their business ideas between April 12 and April 14.

The teams - including ones from Stanford University and MIT - will be competing for an expected $1 million plus in prizes, including $900,000 in investment offers and over $500,000 in other cash prizes.

Teams will also have the opportunity to meet and network with over 250 venture capital principals, early stage investors, and successful entrepreneurs who will judge the competition.

There are four students in the Lancaster team which is called eBiogen. These include three MBA students from Lancaster University Management School -  Fahim Hussain, Dario Maglione and Amitesh Podder – plus Mukesh Kumar, currently a PhD student in Physics and formerly a Masters student in the Microsystems Centre in Engineering.

The team have been mentored by retired Professor Michael Mumford and Dr Frank Cave of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development at Lancaster University Management School.

He said: “The combination of the business focus of MBA students with the innovative technology of post graduate scientists seems to result in these commercially attractive opportunities.”

Lancaster University was successful in having a team selected in both 2008 and 2010, when they consisted of MBA students combined with a postgraduate student who developed the technology to be used.

The Rice University Business Plan Competition is hosted and organised by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship - Rice University’s flagship initiative for the support of entrepreneurship - and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

Now in its 12th year, more than 133 past competitors have gone on to successfully launch their businesses, raising more than $397m in funding.

The contest is designed to give competitors real life experience to fine tune their business plans and attract funding to take their product to market.

Judges will evaluate the teams based on which company they would most like to invest in.