GOOSE investments - Venture Capital Investor Group in Houston, TX

GOOSE Portfolio Company Saranas Heads to Clinical Trials

January 17, 2022January 17, 2022Samantha Jo LewisLeave a comment

Saranas Inc, a GOOSE portfolio company and Houston-based medical device startup, recently closed a round of $2.8 million to kick off clinical trails for their Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System. This round brings their total funding to $12 million.

Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System, invented by Dr. Mehdi Razavi at the Texas Heart Institute, is meant to detect bleeding complications during procedures. The company anticipates FDA approval in early 2019.

In 2017, Saranas was named a finalist for the International Cardiovascular Innovation Award: one of the most prestigious awards for medical startups worldwide.

Dr. Phillippe Géneréux (CMO), Kevin Maples (Board Director), and Zaffer Syed (CEO) at the International Conference for Innovations in Isreal.

Larry Lawson, GOOSE board member, and Kevin Maples, a close friend of GOOSE and son-in-law of GOOSE member Dan Steppe, sit on the Board of Directors for Saranas.

A big thank you to Houston Innovation Map and Business Wire for covering Saranas in full detail and the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute for the support offered to Saranas and countless other healthcare startups.

GOOSE Portfolio Company SiNode Enters $4.5M Joint Venture

December 18, 2021December 18, 2021Samantha Jo LewisLeave a comment

SiNode Systems, a Chicago-based developer of advanced materials out of Northwestern, and JNC Corporation, a Tokyo-based speciality chemical manufacturer, announced the formation of NanoGraf Corporation, a joint venture focused on commercializing materials for the Lithium-ion battery industry. NanoGraf Corporation launches with $4.5 million and plans to expand commercial production and continue the development of additional materials platforms.

NanoGraf’s technology enhances the performance of battery materials via a proprietary graphene-wrapped silicon anode and can improve battery energy density by 50%.

Ashok Rao, Board Member of both SiNode and the GOOSE Society, was an integral part of the negotiations. GOOSE invested in SiNode Systems after the company won the grand prize at the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston, TX.

See NanoGraf’s media page for the full press release.

GOOSE Society Summer Investment Meeting

June 25, 2022June 25, 2022Samantha Jo LewisLeave a comment

This past Thursday, June 21, 2022 the GOOSE Society of Texas hosted their summer investment meeting at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. The geese hosted eight companies, two special guest speakers who provided a venture capital community update and swore in a new GOOSE member!

Alex Wesley, CEO of Arovia, on stage at the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition where his company took home the grand prize.

Out of the eight companies presenting GOOSE heard from many different verticals located in 4 different geographies, including Silicon Valley, China, and of course, Houston. The industries presented were consumer electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, medical devices, and lastly manufacturing in specialty chemicals. The GOOSE Society was pleased to have hosted Forest Devices, the 2017 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) winner that is working towards the better treatment of stroke patients with their device, AlphaStroke. The group also heard from the two GOOSE Society Prize winners of the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition, Arovia and M&S Biotics.

The special attendees were Gina Luna & Russ Capper who represented Houston Exponential (HX), an independent 501C-3 organization that supports the growth of the Houston innovation economy. HX leads on the opportunities that require collaboration across the ecosystem, champions the ecosystem by telling the innovation story of the region and its firms, and it builds and attracts the resources the innovation economy needs to thrive. Along with strong momentum powered by fourteen working groups operated with over two-hundred active volunteers from over fifty major corporations, HX has achieved a major milestone with its new innovation district. This 9.4 acre, $100 million redevelopment by Rice University of the Sears building in Midtown is expected to be complete in two years and will bring a district of dense, mixed used space that attracts talent and creates collisions among entrepreneurs, investors, academics and other ecosystem players.

The GOOSE Society of Texas is also thrilled to have sworn in a new member, Cris Gaut, the Chairman and CEO at Forum Energy Technologies!

The GOOSE Society of Texas looks forward to its next investment meeting in September.

Special thanks to Blake George, GOOSE Analyst for writing this update.

GOOSE awards $60,000 in prizes at Texas A&M New Ventures Competition

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022Samantha Jo LewisLeave a comment

Thank you to TNVC for providing this press release!

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[Houston, Texas, May 25^th, 2018 ] Two companies stood out from the competition and each earned $30,000 investment prizes from GOOSE Society at last week’s Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC) in College Station. Each of these companies will also be invited the pitch to the exclusive group of super-angel investors, which comes with an opportunity to get much more funding. GOOSE judges included Louis Raspino (finals judge), David Klein, and Samantha Lewis.

Houston–based Arovia, creators of the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD), was awarded a GOOSE Society investment prize, as well as $50,000 as the overall winner of the 2018 TNVC.

Arovia Co-Founder, President and CEO Alexander Wesley, a Rice Business Alum, said he was excited to win the competition because he doesn’t consider pitching competitions to be his specialty.

“I’m definitely not a natural pitcher, but I love our product, I love our team and the state of Texas has been really great for us as well,” Wesley said. “I definitely don’t view myself as being a stellar pitch man so I had no expectation at all, but I’m glad the enthusiasm I have for our product and our team and what we’re doing for our customers comes through.”

The second company awarded an investment prize by GOOSE was Houston-based and TMC Biodesign Alum, M&S Biotics, which is developing an autonomous internet of things solution to detect, track, count and locate surgical items within the operating room in real-time. They hope to effectively automate the surgical counting process while providing downstream analytics regarding instrument utilization by leveraging machine learning. M&S Biotics also earned $25,000 by finishing third overall in the competition.

Samantha Lewis, Director of the GOOSE Society said she was impressed with the company’s accepted into the competition and appreciates the diligence TNVC provides beforehand. “The two teams we chose were able to field the tough questions that were asked of them and clearly communicate their value proposition and traction. We also liked the Houston ties, of course!”

Both companies will also have the opportunity to pitch at the next GOOSE Society investment meeting, which can present an even bigger opportunity.

Samantha commented on what a great experience “the geese” had in College Station and is excited about growing the relationship between TNVC and the GOOSE Society. “GOOSE cares about the Texas ecosystem and TNVC is just another way we can do our part to boost entrepreneurship in the state and help startup companies.”

The Rice Business Plan Competition and GOOSE have Deep Roots

April 05, 2022May 24, 2022Samantha Jo LewisLeave a comment

The Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) is the largest and richest graduate-level student startup competition in the world. Since its inception in 2001, RBPC has grown from 9 competing teams with $10,000 in prize money to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1.5 million in cash and investment prizes. In 2005, as a way to support budding entrepreneurs and give back to the Houston community, Jack Gill and 4 other investors decided to form the GOOSE Society and give the grand prize at RBPC. The GOOSE grand prize is now $300,000 with the potential of a much larger investment.

The early successes of GOOSE and RBPC are closely linked as both organizations helped the other to scale. Over the thirteen year partnership, the Rice Alliance (RBPC) and the GOOSE Society have helped Rice Entrepreneurship climb to #2 in rankings published by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Out of the twelve winners since GOOSE’s inception, there have been 4 successful exits with the most recent being Adhesys Medical (formerly Medical Adhesive Revolution). Another noteworthy exit was Auditude which sold to Adobe. Overall, RBPC winners have returned 2x more capital to the GOOSE Society than invested.

The GOOSE Society and 2017 RBPC Winner Forest Devices. The GOOSE Society invested the $300,000 grand prize and an additional $1.7 million bringing total investment to $2,000,000.

Click here to vote for the 2018 $5,000 People’s Choice Award sponsored by Sofi: https://poll.fbapp.io/rbpc-2018-poll

The GOOSE Society of Texas is an organization dedicated to the education and funding of entrepreneurs. We are headquartered in Houston, TX and are dedicated to helping build the Houston entrepreneurial and startup funding ecosystem.