Great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere, but some universities have a truly exceptional track record of attracting and producing future founders.
PitchBook’s annual university rankings compare schools by tallying up the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have raised venture capital in the last decade. The rankings are powered by PitchBook data and are based on an analysis of nearly 167,000 VC-backed founders.
The global list is below, broken down by undergraduate, graduate and MBA programs, with filters for school size, location, and public or private funding status. For the second year in a row, we have published additional lists for European universities and a female founders edition.
Correction: Due to a data error, Doctolib was not included as part of HEC Paris’ top companies. The rankings have been updated to include that information. (Dec. 3, 2024)
Methodology
The 2024 PitchBook university rankings are based on the total number of founders whose companies received a round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2013, and Aug. 1, 2024. The analysis is based on PitchBook data for global VC investment as well as the educational information of nearly 167,000 founders.
Since companies can have more than one founder, and founders can attend multiple schools, it is possible for the same company or founder to count toward multiple universities.
The graduate category includes all founders who have an advanced degree, including an MBA. The MBA category only includes founders with an MBA from that institution.
Download the XLS version of this year’s list.
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Featured image by Joey Schaffer/PitchBook News
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