The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship Announces Partnership with The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation.

Foundation Awards Rice Alliance $105,000 Grant for Business Plan Competition

HOUSTON -- The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship has received a grant award of $105,000 from NASDAQ to help fund the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC). This grant recognizes the substantial growth of the RBPC which, in just seven years, has become the largest and richest intercollegiate business plan competition in the world. The NASDAQ Educational Foundation grant represents a three-year commitment to the Rice Alliance and will support the competition from 2007 to 2009.

"The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc. supports entrepreneurship and capital formation through innovative educational programs," said Joan Conley, Senior Vice President at NASDAQ, "The Rice Business Plan Competition has proven itself to be a great vehicle for showing aspiring student entrepreneurs what it takes to launch a successful business. We're pleased to help those efforts to provide greater mentoring and support for emerging companies who might one day become a part of NASDAQ."

The 2007 Rice Business Plan Competition will take place on March 22-24, 2007. The competition, hosted by Rice Alliance, has grown to become the largest and richest intercollegiate MBA/graduate-level business plan competition in the world, with more prize money, more teams competing, and more judges than any other competition. In 2007, more than $300,000 in total cash and prizes will be announced at the Awards Banquet on Saturday night, March 24, 2007 at the Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, Texas.

Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance said, "We are honored to partner with the NASDAQ Educational Foundation. Their support will help us achieve a primary goal of the RBPC, which is to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs on what it takes to develop a business plan, raise funding, and launch a new company. Every year we have students tell us that this competition was the most valuable part of their two-year MBA experience."

The competition's grand prize includes a $100,000 equity investment, $20,000 cash and over $55,000 of business services including office space, marketing support, and business mentoring. Individual cash prizes total more than $100,000, and every team that participates at the competition is guaranteed to take home prize money. In addition, major prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Sustainability, Energy, Life Science, and Information Technology. This year's competition will unveil the Dow Sustainability Award, a $20,000 cash prize awarded to the team with the best business plan that supports one or more of Dow's 2015 Sustainability Goals.

The competition will welcome 36 of the world's top MBA/graduate schools to compete at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in front of a judging panel of over 150 venture capitalists, investors, and business executives. The competition will conclude with an Awards Banquet that over 500 business leaders and executives will attend.

The 2006 competition included teams from top MBA schools such as Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Columbia, UCLA, and Chicago, as well as international teams from the U.K., India, and Canada. Through the mentoring and networking, numerous past competitors at the Rice Business Plan Competition have gone on to successfully launch their companies, raise funding, and build their businesses.

About the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the support of technology entrepreneurship. The Rice Alliance is a collaboration among the Brown School of Engineering, the Jones Graduate School of Management, and the Wiess School of Natural Science.

Since its inception in late-1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch over 180 new technology companies, which have raised more than $300 million in early stage funding. The mission of the Rice Alliance is to support the creation of technology-based companies and the commercialization of new technologies. The Rice Alliance provides entrepreneurs with a collaborative network and forum for support, education, and exchange of ideas. It offers entrepreneurs access to the human and financial capital needed for success.

About The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc.

The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc. was established in 1994 and is supported entirely by contributions from The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc. The mission of The NASDAQ Educational Foundation, Inc. is to promote learning about capital formation, financial markets and entrepreneurship through innovative educational programs.