The Rice Business Plan Competition awards more than $675,000 in cash and prizes!

The 2008 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) awarded more than $675,000 in cash and prizes at an awards banquet on Saturday, April 5, which nearly doubled the prizes compared to last year’s competition. The banquet marked the conclusion of the three-day RBPC, the largest and richest intercollegiate business plan competition in the world.

This year the competition was joined by FORTUNE Small Business and the competition will be featured in the May 2008 issue of the magazine and on CNNMoney.com

The event, hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University, marked the eighth installment of the RBPC. Thirty-six of the top MBA/graduate schools from around the world presented business plans in front of a judging panel of over 170 venture capitalists, investors, and business executives. The distinguished judges were selected based on their expertise in venture capital, early-stage investing, and entrepreneurship.

The competition’s Grand Prize was valued at over $325,000 and included a $225,000 equity investment, $20,000 cash and over $80,000 of business services including office space, marketing support, and business mentoring. The Grand Prize was awarded to qcue from The University of Texas at Austin. Qcue is a dynamic pricing solution for concert promoters, sports teams, and venues. Its software application transforms existing box offices into electronic markets by implementing elements of airline pricing and NASDAQ trading to provide dynamic pricing based on market conditions, while hosting a secondary market which is seamlessly integrated with the primary market. (award winners, press release)