Universities Where the Most Alumni Become Entrepreneurs
Key Takeaways
- UC Berkeley has the most undergraduate alumni who have gone on to become entrepreneurs.
- Out of the top 20 universities producing entrepreneurs, 15 are located in the U.S.
- Israel’s Technion and the University of Toronto moved up the ranking the most compared to 2024.
Behind every headline-grabbing startup is a story that often begins on a university campus. It’s where many founders meet their co-founders, pitch their first investors, or build the early versions of their product. So which universities turn the most alumni into entrepreneurs?
This infographic was created in partnership with Terzo for our Markets in a Minute series, which features quick economic insights for executives. We explore which institutions are fueling the next generation of innovation through their alumni.
The Top Universities with Entrepreneurial Alumni
To see how universities stack up, we used data from PitchBook based on an analysis of more than 173,000 VC-backed founders who raised capital between January 1, 2014, and September 1, 2025.
The U.S. dominates the list, serving as the home base for 15 out of the top 20 universities. However, universities with entrepreneurial alumni are expanding outside the U.S., with Israel’s Technion (+6 gain in rank vs 2024) and the University of Toronto (+8 gain in rank vs 2024) both seeing significant jumps in the 2025 ranking.
| Rank | University | Entrepreneur Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of California, Berkeley | 1,804 |
| 2 | Stanford University | 1,519 |
| 3 | Harvard University | 1,355 |
| 4 | University of Pennsylvania | 1,206 |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | 1,131 |
| 6 | Cornell University | 944 |
| 7 | Tel Aviv University | 865 |
| 8 | University of Texas, Austin | 850 |
| 9 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | 845 |
| 10 | Technion – Israel Institute of Technology | 783 |
| 11 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 751 |
| 12 | Yale University | 710 |
| 13 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | 679 |
| 14 | Columbia University | 671 |
| 15 | Princeton University | 656 |
| 16 | University of Southern California (USC) | 644 |
| 17 | University of Toronto | 643 |
| 18 | University of Waterloo | 639 |
| 19 | Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay | 627 |
| 20 | Duke University | 625 |
Since companies can have more than one founder, and founders can attend multiple schools, the same company or individual may count toward multiple universities.
Based on undergraduate degrees, UC Berkeley has the most alumni who became entrepreneurs. For example, Anthony Levandowski attended UC Berkeley and later co-founded Google’s self-driving car program, now known as Waymo. While a student at Berkeley, Levandowski participated in a self-driving vehicle race put on by the Department of Defense. The early technology he and others developed during the race became the basic structure for Waymo.
Stanford and Harvard University round out the top three. Both schools offer a variety of paths to support entrepreneurs, including Stanford’s StartX accelerator program and Harvard’s Innovation Labs. Interestingly, these institutions also top the list of universities producing the most billionaires.
Why The Ranking of Entrepreneurs Matters for Leaders
For senior executives, the metric of alumni entrepreneurs offers more than a chance to see where their alma mater falls. It signals environments that nurture independent thinkers capable of launching high‑growth ventures.
Alumni who become entrepreneurs often have autonomy, initiative, and a bias toward innovation. Companies looking to recruit such mindsets, whether through partnerships, acquisitions or talent‑pipelines, may benefit from tracking schools that consistently produce entrepreneurs. The fact that 15 of the top 20 schools are U.S.‑based may also influence global talent strategies.
Great insights, like these university trends, start with great data. NirvanAI is an all-in-one AI system that turns your company’s contract data into actionable information.
See NirvanAI in action and learn how it helps you make decisions with confidence.
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- Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ter01-universities-where-the-most-alumni-become-entrepreneurs/
