May 10, 2005
Sweet Success for Thailand's Idyll Life in 2005 Global MOOT CORP

With Idyll Life, a company selling a natural sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than sugar, students from Thailand's Thammasat University took top honors at the 22nd annual Global MOOT CORP Competition, held May 7 at The University of Texas at Austin. The team beat out 39 teams of MBA students from top schools including London Business School, Carnegie Mellon University and Northwestern University.

Idyll Life has exclusive rights to a patented strain of stevia seeds. Stevia, an herbal extract native to South America, is an intense sweetener that has been used in Asia for several decades, but has never before been approved for use in the United States. The company has obtained FDA approval for a commercial product called Pure Lite.

As the global champion, Idyll Life will receive the opportunity to negotiate a $100,000 investment from the MOOT CORP Pontoon Fund; software, training and consulting from the Microsoft Technology Center worth $33,500; a launch package from the Austin Technology Incubator, including office space, discounts on Dell products and legal and accounting services; and prosecution of the first American patent by Ropes & Gray. The total prize package is valued at $183,500.

Judges were unanimous in awarding Idyll Life the top prize. StyleHigh, a team from the University of Michigan, was named first runner-up. The company plans to sell made-to-order apparel and merchandise to the nation's primary and secondary schools. They will receive a $5,000 cash prize, as well as software and training valued at $8,500, from the Microsoft Technology Center.

Rounding out the top ten finishers were teams from Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, London Business School, Northwestern University, Brigham Young University, The University of Texas at Austin, Australia's Queensland University of Technology, and a second team from Thammasat University. These semifinalists pitched products ranging from an oral formulation of insulin to a bedtime projector for watching movies on the ceiling.

Bigfoot Networks, a team of students in the evening MBA program at The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business, was among the semifinalists. Bigfoot, a gaming network hardware company, won this year's Texas MOOT CORP.

Begun at The University of Texas at Austin by MBA students in 1984, MOOT CORP is the oldest and largest new venture competition in the world.

The members of the Idyll Life team can be reached through Dr. Gary Cadenhead, director of MOOT CORP® (512-471-5289), or Ann Whitt, associate director (512-232-6597, 512-699-7444-mobile). For more on the contest visit www.mootcorp.org.