PitchBook’s 2026 Top Universities, Ranked By Number Of Undergrad Startup Founders

UC Berkeley keeps the No. 1 spot in PitchBook’s 2026 ranking of undergraduate startup founders, as Waterloo surges 11 places into the top 10.

by: Kristy Bleizeffer on September 08, 2026 | 10 minute read

PITCHBOOK’S BEST UNIVERSITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE FOUNDERS

PitchBook compiles its annual university ranking by tallying alumni entrepreneurs whose companies have attracted venture funding over the previous decade.

The 2026 edition is based on a considerably larger pool of founders than last year. PitchBook analyzed the educational histories of more than 222,000 VC-backed founders, up from more than 173,000 for its 2025 list.

PitchBook 2026: Top 100 Universities For Undergraduate Founders
2026 Rank
University
Founder Count
Company Count
Capital Raised
Change vs. 2025
1 University of California, Berkeley 2,380 2,155 $139.4B –
2 Stanford University 1,997 1,787 $252.7B –
3 Harvard University 1,697 1,532 $148.9B –
4 Cornell University 1,541 1,436 $89.5B ⬆ +2
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 1,525 1,342 $111.2B –
6 University of Pennsylvania 1,466 1,354 $309.5B ⬇ –2
7 University of Waterloo 1,303 1,006 $62.7B ⬆ +11
8 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 1,085 1,012 $48.3B ⬆ +1
9 Tel Aviv University 1,084 918 $46.7B ⬇ –2
10 University of Texas, Austin 1,036 948 $34.7B ⬇ –2
11 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1,032 936 $51.1B –
12 Technion – Israel Institute of Technology 1,019 864 $45.5B ⬇ –2
13 Yale University 887 825 $55.5B ⬇ –1
14 Princeton University 845 792 $78.5B ⬆ +1
15 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) 840 807 $32.6B ⬇ –2
16 Columbia University 829 784 $34.5B ⬇ –2
17 University of Toronto 808 737 $53.9B –
18 University of Wisconsin, Madison 802 724 $50.2B ⬆ +9
19 New York University 799 753 $29.7B ⬆ +4
20 University of Southern California (USC) 791 744 $43.0B ⬇ –4
21 Duke University 790 755 $45.4B ⬇ –1
22 Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 756 590 $33.6B ⬇ –3
23 McGill University 721 662 $30.3B ⬇ –1
T24 Northwestern University 703 650 $33.2B ⬇ –3
T24 Brown University 703 654 $51.1B –
26 Tsinghua University 678 628 $75.5B ⬇ –1
27 Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 640 546 $55.7B ⬇ –1
28 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 599 562 $47.9B ⬆ +3
29 Hebrew University 598 523 $22.9B ⬆ +1
30 Carnegie Mellon University 594 550 $30.1B ⬇ –2
31 University of Washington, Seattle 587 536 $204.8B ⬆ +1
32 Brigham Young University 585 486 $14.6B ⬇ –3
33 Georgia Institute of Technology 568 504 $18.6B –
T34 Dartmouth College 549 510 $29.9B ⬆ +1
T34 Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) 549 524 $23.4B –
36 Western University 548 491 $11.8B ⬆ +4
37 Boston University 547 526 $26.9B ⬆ +1
T38 University of Maryland, College Park 541 519 $18.5B ⬇ –2
T38 University of California, San Diego 541 515 $21.3B ⬇ –1
40 University of Colorado, Boulder 530 506 $16.8B ⬇ –1
41 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 502 466 $11.6B –
42 Vanderbilt University 474 460 $14.9B ⬆ +21
43 University of British Columbia 472 415 $9.3B ⬆ +1
44 Purdue University 462 433 $17.8B ⬇ –2
T45 Indiana University, Bloomington 455 438 $12.3B ⬆ +12
T45 Georgetown University 455 443 $29.5B –
47 National University of Singapore 454 383 $11.7B ⬇ –4
48 Indian Institute of Technology, Madras 447 399 $23.0B ⬇ –2
49 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 434 358 $23.2B ⬇ –2
50 Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 428 363 $21.2B ⬇ –1
T51 Reichman University 422 356 $14.7B ⬇ –4
T51 University of Florida, Gainesville 422 391 $19.3B –
T51 University of Oxford 422 405 $19.9B ⬇ –1
54 Johns Hopkins University 411 384 $19.9B ⬇ –1
55 University of Cambridge 405 388 $20.6B ⬇ –1
56 Ben Gurion University 402 363 $14.8B ⬇ –4
57 University of Chicago 401 377 $37.3B ⬇ –1
T58 University of California, Santa Barbara 383 370 $15.4B ⬆ +3
T58 Peking University 383 363 $48.5B ⬇ –4
60 Arizona State University, Tempe 368 348 $10.2B ⬇ –2
61 Northeastern University 367 345 $12.5B ⬇ –2
62 Delhi University, India 366 350 $13.7B ⬆ +3
63 Washington University 365 337 $21.7B ⬇ –3
64 University of Sydney 362 344 $12.3B ⬆ +18
65 University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 358 334 $10.4B ⬆ +10
T66 University of California, Davis 356 342 $10.7B ⬇ –4
T66 Monash University 356 329 $6.3B ⬆ +5
68 Tufts University 352 340 $17.8B ⬇ –1
69 University of Notre Dame 350 324 $8.9B ⬆ +3
70 University of Massachusetts, Amherst 348 342 $11.4B ⬆ +7
71 Ohio State University 346 324 $8.9B ⬇ –7
72 University of New South Wales 345 316 $7.9B ⬆ +22
73 Seoul National University 343 301 $11.8B ⬇ –4
74 University of Mumbai 339 316 $12.9B ⬇ –8
75 Trinity College Dublin 334 310 $8.2B ⬇ –5
76 University of Melbourne 323 297 $11.1B ⬇ –8
77 Boston College 321 305 $11.9B ⬇ –4
78 Queen’s University 319 292 $11.9B –
79 Texas A&M University 317 295 $9.8B ⬇ –3
80 University of Arizona, Tucson 303 288 $14.4B ⬇ –7
81 California Polytechnic University 300 282 $9.7B ⬆ +1
82 Emory University 297 290 $9.1B ⬇ –4
83 London School of Economics 296 284 $9.7B ⬇ –3
84 State University of New York (SUNY) 293 290 $8.7B –
85 Imperial College London 284 271 $9.4B ⬆ +10
86 Rutgers University 280 269 $8.4B ⬇ –5
87 California State University 276 269 $34.7B ⬆ +1
88 Virginia Tech 268 258 $7.5B ⬇ –1
T89 Michigan State University 267 257 $7.0B ⬇ –4
T89 University of California, Irvine 267 252 $12.8B ⬆ +1
T91 Bar-Ilan University 265 248 $11.8B ⬇ –1
T91 Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani) 265 230 $7.7B ⬇ –5
93 George Washington University 261 252 $6.7B ⬇ –3
94 Copenhagen Business School 260 235 $8.0B ⬇ –4
95 Rensselaer Polytechnic 257 241 $10.9B ⬆ +3
T96 University of Calgary 249 218 $18.5B ⬆ +4
T96 Syracuse University 249 240 $10.1B ⬇ –7
98 York University 248 231 $4.6B ⬆ +2
99 University College Dublin 242 225 $3.8B ⬇ –3
100 Zhejiang University (Zheda) 241 234 $153.5B ⬆ +2

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