(PICTURED ABOVE Matthew Kesinger(right) and Carmelo R. Montalvo (left) after winning the 2017 Rice Business Plan Competition.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Forest Devices, Inc. wins the 2017 RICE Business Plan Competition

PITTSBURGH – (April 11, 2017) This past weekend, Forest Devices, Inc. competed in the annual RICE Business Plan Competition (RBPC) and won first place and over $600,000 in cash and prizes. The RBPC, the world’s richest and largest graduate-level student startup competition, is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

Brad Burke, the Managing Director of the Rice Alliance, commented that this year’s competitors were the most diverse in the history of the competition and came from top universities around the globe. Teams competed against each other by delivering a one-minute elevator pitch followed by their respective fifteen-minute investment pitches, which spanned from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon.

Forest Devices CEO, Matthew Kesinger, and Director of Operations, Carmelo R. Montalvo, took the stage in front of 400 spectators and judges, delivering the company’s presentation at the Jones Graduate School of Business on the campus of Rice University. After two days of non-stop pitching and networking, Forest emerged as the top startup in the competition, representing the best investment opportunity in the eyes of the nearly 300 judges in attendance. When asked about the experience at RBPC, Kesinger had the following to say: “The Rice Business Plan Competition was an amazing experience, and the investment from our new partners will help us achieve our next milestone.”

Forest Devices is a Pittsburgh-based medical device startup company that is developing AlphaStroke. Acting like an EKG for the brain, AlphaStroke will help pre-hospital providers determine if their patients are having a stroke. Stroke is the most debilitating disease in the world, and the mission of Forest Devices is to reduce that disability by getting stroke patients to the treatment they need faster.

Contact:Carmelo R. Montalvo

Carmelo R. Montalvo

Carmelo.Montalvo@forestdevices.com

URL: www.forestdevices.com

1936 Fifth Ave

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Ph: 412.404.3769

The official prize and cash details of Forest Devices winnings are as listed below:

Grand Prize – 1^st in Pitch Presentation Rounds

• $300,000+ – Investment Prize from The GOOSE Society of Texas
• $25,000 – Marketing services from The Padgett Group
• $30,000 – Website development, hosting and search engine optimization services for one year provided by Astoundz
• $30,000 – Treasury services provided by Bank of America
• Business Plan software provided by Palo Alto Software.
• Opportunity to ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ Stock Market in New York.

OWL Investment Prize – Provided by the OWL Investment Group

• $200,000+ Investment Prize

Houston Angel Network Investment Prize – Provided by the Houston Angel Network (HAN)

• $125,000 Investment Prize

TMCx Life Science Accelerator Prize – Provided by the TMCx Life Science Accelerator

• $25,000 Investment Prize

Edward H. Molter Memorial Prize for Best Presentation – Provided by Miller, Egan, Molter, and Nelson, LLP.

• $10,000 Cash Prize

OFW Law Prize – Provided by Law Firm of Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz PC

• $10,000 In-kind Prize