by: Kristy Bleizeffer on September 08, 2026
| 10 minute read
September 8, 2026
University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University, both within striking distance of Silicon Valley, have again topped <a href="https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/pitchbook-university-rankings” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>PitchBook’s annual ranking of universities producing venture-backed undergraduate founders.
Berkeley claims No. 1 for a fourth straight year with 2,380 alumni founders behind 2,155 companies, while Stanford stays at No. 2 with 1,997 founders and 1,787 companies. Together, their founders’ companies have raised more than $392 billion over PitchBook’s measurement period.
Harvard University holds at No. 3 with 1,697 founders and $148.9 billion raised.
UC Berkeley, home to the Haas School of Business, has made a concerted push to build out its entrepreneurship ecosystem includingits three-story “eHub,”a campus gathering place for entrepreneurship that serves as an incubator, meeting space and launch pad for new ideas. Its semester-long practice tracks — SEARCH, TEST and BUILD — are designed to support entrepreneurs at different stages of creating a venture.
PitchBook Top 10 2026: 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 |
Cornell University jumps two spots to No. 4 with 1,541 founders, leapfrogging MIT, which holds at No. 5. The University of Pennsylvania drops two spots to No. 6 — though its founders have raised a whopping $309.5 billion, the highest total of any university in the top 10.
Undergrads at University of Pennsylvania get founding credit for several AI and tech companies that pushes its total capital up. These include OpenAI at $181.9 billion, xAI at $42.2 billion, and Prometheus at $18.2 billion.
(Because a company can have multiple founders — and founders can attend multiple universities — one entrepreneur or company may be credited to more than one school.)
Perhaps the biggest shakeup comes from Canada.
University of Waterloo rockets 11 places from No. 18 to No. 7, with 1,303 founders behind 1,006 companies raising $62.7 billion. It marks the first time a Canadian university has cracked PitchBook’s undergraduate top 10.
RANKING UNIVERSITIES BY NUMBER OF FOUNDERS
PitchBook — a database for mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital — 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. That accounts for some of the dramatic increase in raw founder counts across this year’s ranking. Berkeley, for example, jumps from 1,804 founders in last year’s list to 2,380 this year. Stanford goes from 1,519 to 1,997. Those increases don’t represent hundreds of newly minted entrepreneurs suddenly appearing in a single year.
PitchBook also rolls its 10-year window forward annually. The 2026 ranking counts founders whose companies received a venture round between Jan. 1, 2015, and Aug. 1, 2026. Qualifying funding includes seed, early- and later-stage venture capital, angel financing and several restart venture categories.
Among the biggest movers in this year’s list is Vanderbilt University, climbing 21 spots to No. 42. Indiana University rises 12 places to a tie at No. 45 while University of Wisconsin-Madison jumps nine spots to No. 18.
International universities also make some of the biggest moves. University of Sydney climbs 18 places to No. 64, while University of New South Wales jumps 22 spots to No. 72 — the largest gain among this year’s top 100. Imperial College London rises 10 places to No. 85.
Two international universities appear in the top 10 this year, the same number as in 2025 but with a different mix. Tel Aviv remains, while Canada’s Waterloo replaces Israel’s Technion.
U.S. universities still dominate the broader ranking. By our count, 62 of PitchBook’s top 100 undergraduate universities are in the United States. Canada and India have eight apiece, Israel has six, and the United Kingdom and Australia each place four. China has three, Ireland two, with Singapore, South Korea and Denmark each represented once.
See the full undergrad university list on page 2,followed by the best universities for undergraduate female founders and best European universities for undergraduate founders.
NEXT PAGE:Best Universities for Undergraduate Founders
