Which universities are hotspots for startup founders?
The typical heavy-hitter startup schools like Stanford, UC Berkeley and Harvard might come to mind, but over the last decade, universities across the country have produced hundreds of venture-backed startup founders who've gone on to raise billions in funding for their companies.
Venture capital data firm Pitchbook recently published its list of the top 100 colleges ranked by startup founders, an analysis looking at the number of alumni entrepreneurs who've gone on to raise venture capital funding in the last 10 years. From Pitchbook's database, which examined more than 150,000 VC-backed founders, Stanford University came in No. 1 for undergraduate universities in terms of the number of alumni who've raised venture funding as a startup founder.
Stanford has seen 1,435 of its undergrad alumni raise more than $73 billion in funding in the last decade, according to Pitchbook. Some of the top startups from Stanford graduates include Robinhood, DoorDash and Nubank.
Following Stanford on Pitchbook's list are the University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University; University of Pennsylvania; MIT; and Cornell.
One Sunshine State university made the list as well, with the University of Florida ranked at No. 45. The school has seen 315 of its undergraduate alumni raise $7.8 billion from investors. The top funded startups founded by graduates include Infinite Reality, Curie.Bio, Apeel Sciences, Shield AI and Selina Finance.
The University of Florida ranked No. 42 when analyzed by graduate alumni, with 224 of its graduate degree holders capturing $3.1 billion from investors over the past decade.
Stanford, Cal and Harvard ranked first, second and third on Pitchbook's list of top colleges for startup founders last year, as well.
Elsewhere in this year's top 25 you'll find the University of Texas at No. 9, with 742 undergraduate alumni having raised more than $15 billion in funding, according to Pitchbook. Other non-coastal universities that can tout startup founders include the University of Illinois, which saw 586 undergrad alumni raise more than $20 billion for their startups. At Duke University, 530 founders raised $17.4 billion. The University of Wisconsin saw 504 founders raise $13.8 billion.
Pitchbook for the first time this year also examined universities and VC-backed female founders. That resulting list matches the overall startup founder list at the top, with Stanford, Cal, Harvard and Penn ranking 1 through 4 in terms of undergrad alumni who've gone on to raise funding as a startup founder.
Some schools that ranked higher in terms of female founders include New York University, which ranked No. 6 for female founders and No. 18 overall. Northwestern University ranked No. 16 for women-led startups and No. 25 overall. Boston University ranked No. 20 for female founders and No. 37 overall.
Women-led startups historically have raised only a fraction of what their male counterparts have raised, and that dynamic is reflected in the Pitchbook data. At Stanford, for example, funding to startups with female founders made up just 7% of all funding that went to startups from Stanford undergrad alumni in the last 10 years. At MIT, that portion was 6.5%.
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