Israel Universities Scores High In Venture Capital Ranking

Five Israeli universities are among the top 50 institutions that produced the highest number of venture capital-backed companies.

The annual university ranking compares schools by tallying more than 144,000 alumni entrepreneurs.

Outside of North America, which had over 70 universities on the list, Tel Aviv University and the Technion, both in Israel, were among the highest-ranking undergraduate programs. 

Tel Aviv University was in 7th place (814 founders of VC-backed companies), and the Technion was in 15th place (576 founders). In addition, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (31st and 412 founders), Ben-Gurion University (45th and 292 founders).

Reichman University was included in the ranking for the first time, in 38th place with 350 founders. Bar-Ilan University also made the list, in 71st place with 203 founders.

Overall, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University came in first, second and third place, respectively. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania rounded out the top five – and all kept their respective ranks from 2021.

The annual ranking was conducted by Pitchbook, a company that delivers data and research covering mergers and acquisitions, and VC and private equity funds.

Its rankings are broken down into four categories of founders: undergraduate, graduate, female founders undergraduate, and female founders graduate. 

According to its data, alumni who attended universities with more than 30,000 students (as undergraduates) produced the highest number of VC-backed companies and garnered the most capital. 

It also found that although public universities make up the majority of the rankings and produce more founders, private schools like Harvard and Stanford tend to dominate the top of the lists. Founders who attended a private university raised a disproportionately higher share of capital.