Two Maryland universities rank in top 60 for startup founders, Pitchbook finds

Two Maryland institutions ranked among the top 100 universities in the world for startup founders, according to a new report from Pitchbook.

The University of Maryland, College Park and Johns Hopkins University both earned positions in the ranking of the best undergraduate and graduate schools for entrepreneurs. Pitchbook, which is known for its venture capital database, judged schools based on the number of founders whose companies raised venture capital in the last decade, between 2013 and 2023. Pitchbook expanded its data set this year to create a more comprehensive view of universities, including a list focused on how well female founders from different universities perform in the venture capital markets.

Maryland and Hopkins both suffered a slight dip in the rankings compared to last year, with Maryland going from the 33rd best university for undergraduate entrepreneurs to 38th and Hopkins declining from 50th to 51st. Maryland boasts 398 founders who raised $9.6 billion. Publicly traded software company FiscalNote Holdings is the highest-ranked Maryland startup raising $1.2 billion. Hopkins claimed 281 founders who raised $8.8 billion. Health care technology startup Aledade ranks as the top Hopkins company, raising $678 million, including a $260 million round earlier this year.

The two schools also earned recognition for their ability to produce female entrepreneurs. Maryland ranked as the 36th best undergraduate school for women founders with 46 founders raising $425 million. Hopkins did not place on the list. When it came to graduate school performance, Hopkins fared much better. The Baltimore school earned the 10th spot on the list with 75 female founders raising $2 billion of capital. Maryland ranked 45th among graduate schools for women founders with 26 founders raising $364 million.

The two schools have invested in several programs and accelerators to boost student entrepreneurship and growth, such as the Hopkins FastForwardU and the UMD Maryland MTech startup incubator. The University System of Maryland also directly invests in companies related to public universities through the Maryland Momentum Fund.

Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, a program facilitating the transformation of Hopkins intellectual property into profitable companies, reported that 20 companies affiliated with the university raised $552 million of venture funding, according to its 2023 annual report. Over 100 students participated in accelerators, leading to $3.7 million of venture funding for student companies.

“As a university commercialization hub with the mission to introduce high-impact technologies to the world, it feels especially incumbent on JHTV to be fast-moving and creative to meet the needs of each project,” Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures Executive Director Christy Wyskiel said in a statement in the annual report. “This year, we saw many new 'flavors' of invention, intellectual property protection approaches, industry collaboration models and business strategy. Heck, an entire generative AI industry popped up seemingly overnight.”

Other notable Hopkins spinout companies include Haystack Oncology, a health care startup acquired for $450 million earlier this year. The University of Maryland is also expanding its own research capabilities. The University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland, College Park are uniting to build a center in Montgomery County focusing on research in AI and health care.

Here are the top 10 universities in the world for undergraduate founders:

Here are the top 10 universities in the world for graduate founders:

Here are the top 10 universities in the world for female undergraduate founders:

Here are the top 10 universities for female graduate founders: