Congratulations to Tano Pharmaceuticals, the Fall 2023 TVLIC Texas Champion!

The Fall 2023 Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition was held on Friday, December 8 featuring the top graduate student startups on the UT campus. Twenty-five companies competed in five Semifinal rounds in the morning with the winners advancing to the Finals in Crum Auditorium in the afternoon.

Tano Pharmaceuticals was awarded the top prize of $15,000 for the first commercial skincare and medical products based on a revolutionary new ingredient: sap from banana trees. This ingredient has been proven to stop bleeding, accelerate wound healing, and is anti-microbial. Tano’s mission is to bring this ingredient to the natural skincare market with follow-on goals of FDA approval and being used by clinicians and first responders worldwide. Co-founders Sean Finney and Branson Berger are in the class of 2024 MBA cohort at the McCombs School of Business.

The Texas Superstar and $5,000 prize went to AirMax, an HVAC hardware retrofit technology that increases the efficiency of existing commercial AC units. AirMax’s efficiency gain will decrease ongoing utility costs and thereby substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. AirMax also was awarded a $5,000 prize for Energy Innovation.

The Texas Rising Star and $2,500 prize went to OmniSense Surgical, a patient-driven medical device start-up that provides real-time, valuable information to surgeons. OmniSense Surgical mitigates the risk of skin flap necrosis for patients undergoing mastectomy by integrating innovative sensor technology to existing surgical workflows to improve patient outcomes. OmniSense Surgical also earned the award for Health Innovation and an additional $5,000 prize.

Terra Technology Innovations was the winner of the Technology Commercialization Award and $10,000 prize as well as the Sustainability Award and $5,000 prize. Terra Technology Innovations’ proprietary and patented Super Moisture-Absorbent Gel (SMAG) is an industry-first innovation that extracts water directly from the air, providing an unlimited water source for plants in arid regions. SMAG offers a sustainable, cost-effective solution to water scarcity, dramatically increasing agricultural opportunity and productivity.

The James D. Pippin Veteran Entrepreneurship Award and a $1,000 prize went to Advanced Breathing Analytics (ABA), which optimizes training and performance for professional athletes in high endurance sports by integrating state-of-the-art wearable technology with scientific insights to provide real-time, lab-quality data analysis in the field.

All twenty-five 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 AirMax, OmniSense Surgical and Ralli.

Congratulations to all of the graduate student startups who competed in the Fall 2023 Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition! And thanks to all of our judges, sponsors and volunteers who made it possible. We’re looking forward to seeing you at TVLIC’s 40th Anniversary competition on May 2-3, 2024!