No slumdog millionaire here!

BetaGlide, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagur, India, came to the Rice Business Plan Competition last week-end with its mobile app development tool and was awarded a $1 million prize from the Houston-based Mercury Fund. The Mercury prize, originally set at $100,000, became $1 million as investors upped the ante for this promising product.

Texas State University's SioTex Corp., a new start-up just 3 months old, received the $125,000 Texas Halo Fund prize. SioTeX has developed a "greener" silica additive derived from rice hulls for use in paints and polymers. Read more about the winners at this year's RBPC in the Houston Chronicle.