Talking straight numbers, which universities have produced the most undergraduate student founders over the last decade?
According to PitchBook’s latest ranking, the schools at the top of the list are the same as last two years: University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University. Together, their alumni account for more than $170 billion raised over the past decade.
UC Berkeley, home to the Haas School of Business, remains on the tip-top with 1,804 alumni founders, 1,650 companies, and $68.9 billion raised. Stanford takes second with 1,519 founders and an impressive $102.2 billion in capital raised, while Harvard lands at No. 3 with 1,355 founders and $61.6 billion raised.
“The PitchBook rankings are out, and we’re again #1 in producing venture-backed startups — for three years in a row now, having substantially expanded our lead this time!” Saikat Chaudhuri posted on Linkedin. He is the Entrepreneurship Hub faculty director at UC Berkeley Haas School of business.
“This is not a coincidence — building a thriving innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem required a years-long effort that involved scores of units and leaders on campus.”
Haas opened its new three-story “eHub” building last winter, serving as a gathering space for all things entrepreneurship — an incubator for innovation, meeting place for discussion, and a launch pad space for new ideas. The hub offers three semester-long practice tracks, each designed to meet students exactly where they are in their entrepreneurial journey — SEARCH, TEST, and BUILD.
“With the world facing challenges on many fronts, I have no doubt that Cal will be at the forefront of finding creative and sustainable solutions for society — true to its DNA,” Chaudhuri wrote.
PitchBook Top 10 2025: Undergraduate Founders |
|||||
Rank |
University |
Founder Count |
Company Count |
Capital Raised |
Change vs. 2024 Overall |
| 1 | University of California, Berkeley | 1,804 | 1,650 | $69.0B | – |
| 2 | Stanford University | 1,519 | 1,380 | $102.2B | – |
| 3 | Harvard University | 1,355 | 1,237 | $61.6B | – |
| 4 | University of Pennsylvania | 1,206 | 1,113 | $120.4B | ⬆ +1 |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | 1,131 | 1,019 | $69.8B | ⬇ –1 |
| 6 | Cornell University | 944 | 903 | $42.8B | – |
| 7 | Tel Aviv University | 865 | 736 | $30.0B | – |
| 8 | University of Texas, Austin | 850 | 774 | $24.0B | ⬆ +1 |
| 9 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | 845 | 787 | $30.2B | ⬇ –1 |
| 10 | Technion – Israel Institute of Technology | 783 | 671 | $26.7B | ⬆ +3 |
RANKING UNIVERSITIES BY NUMBER OF FOUNDERS
PitchBook — a database for mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital — compiles its annual ranking by tallying the number of alumni from each school who have founded VC-backed companies over the past 10 years. The 2025 list analyzed more than 173,000 global founders, breaking results into MBA, graduate, and undergraduate categories, as well as female founders.
PitchBook’s list is based on the number of alumni founders between Jan. 1, 2014, and Sept. 1, 2025. It also tracks how much investment their founders have earned over that time period. Because companies can have more than one founder, and founders can attend multiple schools, a single company or individual may count toward multiple universities.
Data used comes from the PitchBook Platform or is collected from publicly available and primary sources.
At the undergraduate level, two international universities, both in Israel, broke the top 10, one more than last year. Tel Aviv University landed at No. 7, the same spot as 2024. Technion — Israel Institute of Technology rose three spots to land at No. 10.
Overall, U.S. universities claimed 63 of 101 total schools. India and Canada each had eight schools on the list followed by Israel with six, and the United Kingdom and Australia with four each.
See the full undergrad university list on page 4.
TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR MBA FOUNDERS
At the MBA level, Harvard Business School finished at No. 1 with a founder count of 1,906. Those MBA entrepreneurs, in turn, created 1,757 companies that raised more than $84.6 billion in capital investment.
Stanford Graduate School of Business comes second on the MBA list with 1,196 MBA founders, 1,088 companies, and $115.1 billion raised. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School rounds out the top three with 1,153 founders and $45.5 billion raised.
PitchBook’s 2025 list evaluates 50 MBA programs from around the world.
PitchBook’s Top 10 2025: MBA Founders |
|||||
Rank |
University |
Founder Count |
Company Count |
Capital Raised |
Change vs. 2024 |
| 1 | Harvard University | 1,906 | 1,757 | $84.6B | – |
| 2 | Stanford University | 1,196 | 1,088 | $115.1B | – |
| 3 | University of Pennsylvania | 1,153 | 1,068 | $45.5B | – |
| 4 | INSEAD | 922 | 855 | $21.5B | – |
| 5 | Columbia University | 835 | 780 | $26.6B | – |
| 6 | Northwestern University | 815 | 780 | $21.1B | – |
| 7 | University of Chicago | 726 | 672 | $21.4B | ⬆ +1 |
| 8 | MIT | 717 | 664 | $24.1B | ⬇ –1 |
| 9 | UC Berkeley | 536 | 500 | $17.4B | – |
| 10 | London Business School | 478 | 443 | $11.6B | ⬆ +1 |
Harvard’s highest earning company is Northvolt at $6.9 billion, the same as last year. Gojek (raising $5.5 billion) and Generate ($4.3 billion) rose into the top three companies for this ranking.
While HBS claims first with the sheer number of entrepreneurs, Stanford blows it and all others out of the water on money earned.
On PitchBook’s MBA list, Stanford gets credit for OpenAi, even though its founder, Sam Altman, studied computer science at the university before famously dropping out. The company raised $59.9 billion since its founding in 2015, up nearly $50 billion from last year’s 10-year total of $10.3 billion. Overall, Stanford MBA entrepreneurs have raised $115.1 billion with 1,088 companies.
Wharton’s MBA program had the third highest earning companies at $45.5 billion. Biotech company Resilience, founded by alum Rahul Singhvi, led the pack raising $2.4 billion over a decade.
PitchBook further narrows down its MBA list to break out the number of female founders.
Harvard also tops this list by number of female founders (384 compared to Stanford’s 244), but companies founded by Stanford female entrepreneurs earned more over the last decade ($12.9 billion compared to $8.2 billion.)
Click to page 2 for the full list of universities by MBA founders and page 5 for the number of MBA female founders.
GOOD B-SCHOOLS ARE GOOD FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Not surprisingly, the top-ranked MBA programs in the world are good at churning out successful entrepreneurs. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, which this year topped Poets&Quants’ composite ranking of the best MBA programs in the U.S. for the first time, had the sixth most MBA founders for global universities, according to Pitchbook. That’s 815 MBA founders, 780 companies, and earning $21.1 billion in the last decade.
Stanford ranked No. 2 on both our composite ranking and Pitchbook’s 2025 list for MBA founders.
In fact, the so called M7s took up seven out eight of the top spots for MBA founders, interrupted only by France’s INSEAD, which ranked No. 4 on PitchBook’s founder list with 922 founders, 855 companies, and $21.5 billion raised. (The school topped P&Q’s latest composite MBA ranking for international business schools.)
U.S. schools dominate the MBA list with 30 out of the 50 evaluated – one less than the number of U.S. schools on last year’s list. Five countries have three universities apiece on the list including Canada, China, France, India, and the United Kingdom. Spain and Israel have two schools ranked while Brazil has one.
TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR GRADUATE FOUNDERS
PitchBook’s list of graduate programs by number of founders — which include MBAs as well as other master’s and doctoral degrees — are also dominated by U.S. schools. However, two UK universities (Cambridge and Oxford) broke the top 10, highlighting the growing strength of international universities in entrepreneurship.
Stanford University reclaimed the No. 1 spot with 4,287 graduate founders of 3,286 companies raising $242.6 billion over the last decade. Harvard follows with 3,842 graduate founders and $222.8 billion raised, while MIT takes third with 2,859 graduate founders and $137.3 billion raised.
PitchBook’s Top 10 2025: Graduate Founders |
|||||
Rank |
University |
Founder Count |
Company Count |
Capital Raised |
Change vs. 2024 |
| 1 | Stanford University | 4,287 | 3,286 | $242.6B | – |
| 2 | Harvard University | 3,842 | 3,242 | $222.8B | – |
| 3 | MIT | 2,859 | 2,233 | $137.3B | – |
| 4 | Columbia University | 1,920 | 1,701 | $61.2B | – |
| 5 | UC Berkeley | 1,893 | 1,577 | $129.4B | – |
| 6 | University of Pennsylvania | 1,776 | 1,551 | $62.1B | – |
| 7 | University of Cambridge | 1,488 | 1,243 | $44.0B | – |
| 8 | University of Oxford | 1,410 | 1,171 | $45.1B | – |
| 9 | Northwestern University | 1,299 | 1,153 | $34.9B | – |
| 10 | New York University | 1,088 | 1,016 | $87.6B | – |
Out of 100 schools on the 2025 graduate list, 50 are in the United States. The United Kingdom had 8 universities followed by Israel with 6. France, Canada, and Sweden all had 5 apiece.
See PitchBook’s full university lists for best MBA, graduate, and undergraduate universities by number of alumni founders:.
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