What are the best colleges for startup founders? Here's how Pittsburgh universities compare globally.

A new report from Pitchbook breaks down the top colleges for startup founders. Here's how Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh rank globally.

Nate Doughty

Jim Dallke,

Nate Doughty

November 08, 2022, 03:19pm EST

Which colleges produce the most venture-backed startup founders?

Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; and Harvard University, according to a new report from venture capital data firm Pitchbook, which compiled a list of the 100 top colleges from around the world for startup founders.

While elite coastal schools topped the rankings, there was plenty of geographic diversity near the top of the list including Pittsburgh-based universities.

Pitchbook's report measured schools based on the number of founders whose companies received a first round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2012, and Oct. 21, 2022. In total, Pitchbook produced four lists based on these findings as it related to the top universities for undergraduates, graduates, female founder undergraduates and female founder graduates, respectively.

At Stanford, the top undergraduate university on Pitchbook's list, 1,427 founders raised funding during that span, cumulatively raising more than $73 billion. While holding a slim lead over No. 2 UC-Berkeley in terms of the number of founders getting checks (1,406), Stanford holds a much stronger lead in dollars raised. UC-Berkeley founders raised just under $46 billion in the last decade.

When it comes to graduate schools, Stanford, Harvard and MIT lead the way. The graduate school top 10 list also includes Columbia University (No. 4), Northwestern University (No. 9) and New York University (No. 10).

For female founders, Stanford and Harvard topped the list for both undergrad and graduate schools.

Carnegie Mellon University placed at varying levels across all four lists while the University of Pittsburgh ranked on one of them as well.

CMU ranked No. 22 on the undergraduate list with 480 founders and 427 companies that combined have raised an estimated $19.5 billion in funding.

For the graduate-level list, CMU fared even better, coming in a No. 13 with 764 founders and 626 companies that combined have raised an estimated $36.5 billion in funding. Pitt also ranked on this list, placing at spot No. 73 with 180 graduate-level founders and 153 companies that raised $3.1 billion

As for the undergraduate female-founded startups list, CMU ranked No. 30, logging 49 founders and 48 companies that have raised $2 billion. At the graduate level, CMU jumped to spot No. 18 on the list with 79 founders and 73 companies that have raised $1.1 billion.

CMU's and Pitt's prominence on the list follows that of another adjacently-related report published last May that found both institutions to be among the best in the nation for university tech transfers, where CMU ranked as the top university per metrics established by Heartland Forward, a nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy group based in Bentonville, Arkansas. The University of Pittsburgh came in at spot No. 21 on that list.

Below are Pitchbook's top 10 schools in each category. You can read the full list from Pitchbook here.