TVL Investment Competition
Unleash the Power of Innovation: Experience the Texas Venture Labs' Investment Competition, where University of Texas graduate students pitch their business idea for invaluable feedback, cash prizes, and valuable connections.
This Competition is the Real Deal
The Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition (TVLIC) mimics the real-world process of raising venture capital. Graduate students from the University of Texas System present their ideas for new businesses and receive invaluable feedback from entrepreneurs and investors. Many TVLIC competitors launch successful businesses, including uShip, Ordoro, BeatBox Beverages, Phurnace Software and Qcue.
The Spring 2025 TVL Investment Competition is happening on Friday, May 2.
The application deadline is Sunday, April 13.
Building Skills While Launching Dreams
$857M
PRIZE MONEY GIVEN AWAY
Since 2010
42%
INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Have judged in TVLIC
302
UT GRADUATE STUDENTS
Participating Since 2010
We Craft Dream Pitches
Fall 2024 Competition
Fall 2024 Competition
The Fall 2024 Texas Champion was Longhorn Life Sciences, which was awarded the top prize of $15,000 for enveloping needs-driven solutions to improve patient outcomes and experiences. Their technology, “iDetect”, is a wound monitoring system for remotely detecting infections in post-operative cancer patients. The system will reduce the subjective burden on patients to accurately report their symptoms and improve clinical coordination. Congratulations to James Clarke, Ph.D. in Physics in the College of Natural Sciences, for bringing home the win!
Texas Superstar Award
Texas Superstar Award
The Texas Superstar and $5,000 prize went to Avid, which makes growing fresh, pesticide-free food as easy as pressing a button. You can tell their app what you want to grow, insert our seed pods, and watch for notifications to add more water. Avid automates the rest so you don’t need to have the time or green thumb to do so yourself. Congratulations to Fred Lindseth, MBA, McCombs School of Business, 2026.
Additional Awards
Texas Rising Star Award
Texas Rising Star Award
The Texas Rising Star and $2,500 prize went to Krishnan Ram (MS in Mechanical Engineering, 2025) of Paradigm Robotics. Paradigm Robotics is an Austin, Texas based robotics startup building advanced and versatile robotic platform solutions to provide mission critical situational awareness for firefighting, disaster response, industrial/manufacturing, and other industries.
Elevator Pitch Challenge
Elevator Pitch Challenge
All twenty-nine teams also presented two-minute pitches in the Ann Whitt Elevator Pitch Challenge which awards a $1,000 prize to the top three presenters. The winners were Trinity Tube, Brown Bag Games and Greeni Tahini.
Sustainability Award
Sustainability Award
The Sustainability Award and $5,000 prize went to Facilimax.
Health Innovation Award
Health Innovation Award
Trinity Tube and CerebroSonic were both awarded prizes for Health Innovation and an additional $5,000 prize.
Veteran Entrepreneurship Award
Veteran Entrepreneurship Award
The James D. Pippin Veteran Entrepreneurship Award and a $1,000 prize went to Brown Bag Games.
Technology Commercialization Award
Technology Commercialization Award
MagSuture was the winner of the Technology Commercialization Award and $10,000 prize.