Campus & community, Campus news

New rankings: UC Berkeley is the No. 2 school in the world for entrepreneurs

By Ivan Natividad

a member of skydeck looks at the camera in a busy work space
Seven companies a year will graduate from Berkeley SkyDeck and begin work in Sacramento under the new partnership. (Berkeley SkyDeck photo by Marla Aufmuth)
a member of skydeck looks at the camera in a busy work space

UC Berkeley was named the top public university where the most entrepreneurs can obtain venture funding by PitchBook. Pictured here is Ryan Cosner, an intern at Squishy Robotics, Inc ., doing work at Berkeley SkyDeck, a UC Berkeley startup accelerator . (Berkeley SkyDeck photo)

UC Berkeley ranks nationally as the No. 1 public and second-best university in the world overall for undergraduate programs that produce entrepreneurs who go on to obtain venture funding, according to PitchBook’s 2020 university rankings.

The list includes 50 schools from around the globe and ranked them by the number of companies and founders affiliated with each university, along with the amount of total capital those entrepreneurs raised.

U.S. universities dominated the list, garnering nine of the top 10 ranks.

Stanford University took the top spot overall, with 1,448 founders, 1,258 companies and $47.8 billion in capital raised. Berkeley was not far behind, with 1,365 founders, 1,225 companies and $36.3 billion in capital.

“We’re delighted with this performance,” said UC Berkeley Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer Rich Lyons. “It reflects the efforts of a broad array of people around campus who are part of the collective effort. These new companies are part of how we translate Berkeley’s remarkable intellectual creativity into greater societal benefit.”

Following Berkeley in the rankings for all universities worldwide came MIT (3), Harvard University (4) and University of Pennsylvania (5), rounding out the top five.

As for the top five public universities, after Berkeley (1) came University of Michigan (7), Tel Aviv University in Israel (8), University of Texas (9) and University of Illinois (10).

Four other UC campuses made the top 50, public or private, with UCLA placing 14th, UC San Diego 27th, UC Santa Barbara 40th and UC Davis 43rd.

The 2020 rankings were based on a new PitchBook methodology that tracked founders of companies that received a first round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31, 2020.