At the same time some Chicago universities are making a concerted effort to bring in more entrepreneurial-minded faculty, more venture capital dollars are starting to flow in the direction of their alumni.
That's according capital market data and research firm PitchBook, which recently ranked the top 100 colleges and universities by startup founders.
PitchBook compared schools based on the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have found success in the venture capital market in the last decade. Based on an analysis of nearly 167,000 VC-backed founders, the University of California, Berkeley, topped the global undergrad list at No. 1, followed by Stanford University and Harvard University.
Northwestern University was the top-ranked Chicago-area school for undergrads, coming in at No. 18 (a jump from No. 25 last year) with 605 founders raising $21.7 billion. The University of Chicago ranked No. 67 (up from No. 68 last year) with 274 founders raising $15 billion.
The top Illinois school was the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, ranked No. 10 (up from No. 15) with 739 founders raising $24.1 billion.
Chicago schools also continued to shine when looking at MBA alums specifically. Both Northwestern and UChicago were in the top seven once again, with Northwestern coming in at No. 6 with 798 founders raising $21.1 billion and UChicago ranking No. 7 with 710 founders raising $20.8 billion.
Samir Mayekar, managing director of the University of Chicago's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, recently told Chicago Inno that the university hit a record number of invention disclosures last year. UChicago's startup accelerator New Venture Challenge also set records with the largest investment given to a single team and the largest investment pool in its 28-year history.
The school's entrepreneurial push won't stop there, either. UChicago plans to open a new science incubator at Hyde Park Labs that will cater to earlier-stage companies, with infrastructure to support quantum, climate-tech and battery companies in partnership with Portal Innovations, a local VC firm that works to translate life-sciences innovation coming out of universities and get them on the road to commercialization.
Sign up for the Business Journal’s free daily newsletter to receive the latest business news impacting Chicago.
