Venture Capital Investment Competition

Global VCIC is the world’s largest venture capital competition with over 70 universities competing.

Students play the role of VCs who have around $100MM to invest in one of the startups presenting. They’ll be assessing the investment opportunities and pitching an investment strategy to the VC judges. VCIC is NOT a business plan competition. VCIC is the only place students get to be VCs for the day.  You will be participating in a highly interactive simulation of the VC process in which YOU are the VCs. Real startups come to pitch to you, and VC judges assess your performances.

More information here.

If selected, the Rice University team will compete against other universities from across the country on February 2-4, 2023 at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. Hotel costs will be covered by Rice University. Applications are now closed for 2023. The selected Rice team will be coached by the members of the 2022 Rice VCIC team and Lilie and will be required to spend at least 16 hours prepping for the competition.

VCIC team members must be willing to:

  • Travel to Boulder, CO for the competition February 2-4, 2023
  • Volunteer at the Rice-hosted VCIC competition Friday, January 27, 2023
  • Commit to practice with the team for 2-3 hours every week

Application entails:

  1. A short explanation of why you want to be on the Rice VCIC team
  2. Submitting your LinkedIn profile
  3. Reviewing three business plans
  4. Recording a 2-minute video on your decision whether to invest or not (YouTube or Vimeo link)
  5. Completing a one pager or short (2-3 slide) deck describing and explaining your decision to invest
  6. Application materials are here

Applications are closed for 2023

If you have questions, contact Lilie at lilie@rice.edu.