Four Israeli universities on list of top 50 for alumni entrepreneurship
Tel Aviv University (TAU), Ben Gurion University in the Negev, the Technion in Haifa, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem ranked among the world’s top 50 universities for global entrepreneurship.
TAU – Tel Aviv public research university. Tel Aviv Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS
PitchBook’s 2021 university rankings are based on the number of founders whose companies received the first round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2006, and Oct. 31, 2021. These founders received their undergraduate or MBA education from the universities outlined in this list.
912 TAU undergraduate alumni, who have founded 761 companies and raised $26.8 billion in venture capital, make TAU 8th in the world and 1st outside the US among universities that produce successful entrepreneurs, according to financial data company PitchBook.
Four leading American universities, including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, and MIT topped the list.
Tel Aviv University’s spot in 8th place was followed by elite institutions like Yale in 11thplace, Princeton in the13th, and UCLA ranking 14.
The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology ranked 12th, The Hebrew University ranked 31st, and Ben-Gurion University ranked 44th.
This remarkable achievement comes on the heels of the 2021 ranking by research and policy advisory organization Startup Genome, in which TAU, the only Israeli representative, was ranked 5th in the world for entrepreneurship.
In PitchBook’s separate global ranking for MBA programs, TAU’s Coller School of Management ranked 13th of 25 in producing MBA graduates who have founded venture capital-backed companies. Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton MBAs placed at the top of this list, while the MBA programs at Yale, Oxford, Cornell, Duke and other leading institutions ranked after TAU’s Coller School.
Altogether, 351 alumni with MBAs from TAU have raised a total of $8.8 billion for founding 330 companies, with the highest investments registered in Wiliot, Fabric, BlueVine, Forter, Houzz and others.
TAU also leads in PitchBook’s world ranking of female entrepreneurs who have founded companies with venture capital backing, placing 20th for TAU’s female undergraduate alumni and ranking 14th for female graduates of the Coller School’s MBA program.
PitchBook Data is a company that delivers data, research, and technology covering the private capital markets, including venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions transactions.
