Berkeley’s accomplished undergraduate founders have outpaced their counterparts from any other university worldwide, creating an impressive array of new companies.
The University of California (UC), Berkeley has secured the prestigious position of having the highest number of venture-funded startups established by its undergraduate alumni, as revealed by the 2023 PitchBook university rankings unveiled on Monday.
Berkeley’s accomplished undergraduate founders have outpaced their counterparts from any other university worldwide, creating an impressive array of new companies.
PitchBook, a prominent data provider for both private and public equity markets, annually assesses universities’ performance in producing startup founders. In this year’s PitchBook 2023 data, Berkeley’s undergraduate alumni emerged as the most prolific creators of new companies.
The rankings are determined by the number of students and alumni, hailing from both private and public institutions globally, who have founded companies that secured initial venture funding within the past decade.
For the sixth consecutive year, Berkeley clinched the title of the leading public university for nurturing startup founders. It maintained its overall position as the second-ranked university, including both private and public institutions, with Stanford University claiming the top spot.
The competition between Berkeley and Stanford was remarkably close this year, with Berkeley boasting a mere two founders less than Stanford. The data from PitchBook also highlighted the number of companies generated by undergraduate alumni founders at both institutions. Berkeley surpassed Stanford by a notable eight companies, reporting 1,305 companies compared to Stanford’s 1,297. Last year, Berkeley trailed Stanford by just five companies.
Berkeley’s Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer, Rich Lyons, expressed that securing the first place in the number of companies was an anticipated achievement. He emphasized the substantial growth in Berkeley’s support ecosystem for founders, foreseeing a continued upward trajectory in the years to come.
The Top 5 institutions in PitchBook’s overall rankings included Harvard University (1,205 undergraduate founders), University of Pennsylvania (1,083), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1,079), and Cornell University (856).
Additional University of California campuses also made their mark in the Top 100, including UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine.
In terms of female founders, both undergraduate and graduate, PitchBook ranked Berkeley second, with 217 female founders holding undergraduate degrees. Additionally, Berkeley secured sixth place for female founders from graduate programs, with a count of 153.
Berkeley’s entrepreneurial landscape has been significantly boosted by a 2021 UC Regents report, which outlined strategies to foster entrepreneurship within the entire UC system. This included a focus on faculty innovation and entrepreneurship in the tenure and promotion process. Berkeley’s intellectual prowess across various domains, especially life sciences research, has further propelled its startup culture.
Rich Lyons summarized Berkeley’s success by attributing it to the institution’s enduring values of curiosity, a quest for knowledge, and a commitment to innovation, which have consistently drawn innovative individuals to the campus over generations. The startups spawned by Berkeley now span a wide array of industries and application domains.