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Universities

Where investors come from.

Especially entrepreneurial schools — the startup ecosystems, accelerators, notable founders, and local investors tied to each university.

Ivy League

The Ivy League

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Harvard University

The broadest founder base in the Ivy League, spanning technology, healthcare, and finance, with an unusually large alumni angel network.

New Haven, Connecticut

Yale University

A strengthening venture ecosystem anchored by Yale Ventures and a growing biotech cluster in New Haven.

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton University

A research-intensive university with strong engineering output and a growing venture programme through the Keller Center.

New York, New York

Columbia University

An Ivy League university embedded in New York's startup ecosystem, with strong fintech and media founder output.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

Home to Wharton, producing an outsized number of consumer and fintech founders alongside strong healthcare research.

Providence, Rhode Island

Brown University

A design-inflected founder culture strengthened by its partnership with Rhode Island School of Design.

Hanover, New Hampshire

Dartmouth College

A small, tightly networked alumni base with entrepreneurship anchored by the Magnuson Center and Tuck School.

Ithaca & New York, New York

Cornell University

An engineering-heavy Ivy with a dedicated New York City tech campus at Cornell Tech.

United States

Top American Research Universities

Stanford, California

Stanford University

The densest founder and venture pipeline in the world, physically embedded in Silicon Valley.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

MIT

The benchmark for deep tech and hard science spinouts, from robotics to biotech to energy.

Berkeley, California

UC Berkeley

A deep public engineering pool feeding directly into the Bay Area, with unusual strength in open-source and data infrastructure.

Pasadena, California

Caltech

A very small institution with extraordinary research density, producing deep science and aerospace ventures.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Carnegie Mellon University

The leading source of robotics and AI talent in the United States, anchoring Pittsburgh's technology economy.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

University of Michigan

A large public research university with deep engineering output and strong mobility and healthcare ventures.

UT Austin

The anchor of Austin's technology economy, with strong enterprise software and semiconductor output.

Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia Tech

Atlanta's engineering anchor, with exceptional depth in fintech and supply chain technology.

Los Angeles, California

UCLA

A large public research university anchoring the west Los Angeles startup corridor, strong in media technology and health.

Los Angeles, California

USC

A private research university with an exceptionally active alumni network and strong media, gaming, and enterprise output.

New York, New York

New York University

A university distributed across Manhattan, with the Tandon engineering school anchoring a substantial venture programme.

Evanston, Illinois

Northwestern University

A Chicago-area private university with strong Kellogg-driven founder output and a well-regarded student venture hub.

Durham, North Carolina

Duke University

A research university at the heart of the Research Triangle, with particular strength in health and biotechnology ventures.

Chicago, Illinois

University of Chicago

A research powerhouse with an unusually structured venture programme through the Polsky Center and Booth's New Venture Challenge.

Baltimore, Maryland

Johns Hopkins University

The largest academic research spender in the United States, producing a steady stream of biotech and medical device ventures.

Nashville, Tennessee

Vanderbilt University

A research university at the centre of Nashville's healthcare economy, with growing entrepreneurship programmes.

Rice University

A small, research-intensive university positioned at the centre of the energy industry's technology transition.

St. Louis, Missouri

Washington University in St. Louis

A leading medical research university anchoring one of the strongest plant science clusters in the world.

Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame

A university with an unusually cohesive alumni network and a well-funded commercialisation programme.

Charlottesville, Virginia

University of Virginia

A public university with strong business and law schools and a growing venture ecosystem in Charlottesville.

Atlanta, Georgia

Emory University

A research university with exceptional depth in public health, sitting inside Atlanta's growing technology economy.

Georgetown University

A Washington university whose graduates dominate policy, diplomacy, and the government technology market.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A public university anchoring the Research Triangle alongside Duke and NC State, with strength in life sciences.

United States

More US Universities & Colleges

Seattle, Washington

University of Washington

A public research university embedded in one of the world's densest concentrations of software engineering talent.

La Jolla, California

UC San Diego

A research university at the heart of San Diego's biotechnology and wireless communications clusters.

Davis, California

UC Davis

The leading agricultural and food science research university in the United States, near Sacramento and the Bay Area.

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

An engineering powerhouse whose computer science department helped create the modern consumer internet.

West Lafayette, Indiana

Purdue University

A large engineering university with deep aerospace heritage and an aggressive commercialisation programme.

Madison, Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin–Madison

A research university with a pioneering technology transfer foundation and deep strength in biosciences.

The Ohio State University

One of the largest research universities in the United States, anchoring a fast-growing Columbus economy.

University Park, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania State University

A large land-grant research university with notable strength in materials science and defence-related research.

College Park, Maryland

University of Maryland

A public research university adjacent to Washington, with unusual depth in cybersecurity and quantum research.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston University

A large private research university inside one of the world's strongest life science and technology clusters.

Boston, Massachusetts

Northeastern University

A Boston university built around cooperative education, giving students extended industry experience before graduating.

Medford, Massachusetts

Tufts University

A research university near Boston with distinctive strength in biomedical engineering and nutrition science.

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Boston College

A Jesuit university with strong finance and business programmes and an active alumni network in asset management.

College Station, Texas

Texas A&M University

One of the largest engineering schools in the United States, with deep energy and agricultural research.

Boulder, Colorado

University of Colorado Boulder

A research university in a small city with an outsized startup density and strong aerospace research.

Arizona State University

A very large public university built around access, with growing semiconductor and sustainability research.

Salt Lake City, Utah

University of Utah

A university with a long record of turning research into companies, at the centre of Utah's technology corridor.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The oldest technological research university in the English-speaking world, with strength in computing and materials.

Cleveland, Ohio

Case Western Reserve University

A research university beside the Cleveland Clinic, with exceptional biomedical engineering depth.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

A major medical research university partnered with one of the largest health systems in the United States.

Rochester, New York

University of Rochester

Home to one of the world's leading optics institutes, in a region built on imaging technology.

Howard University

A leading historically Black university in Washington, with a powerful alumni network across law, medicine, and business.

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Babson College

A business school built entirely around entrepreneurship, where venture creation is the core curriculum.

Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara University

A Jesuit university located in the middle of Silicon Valley, with strong engineering and business programmes.

San Luis Obispo, California

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

A polytechnic university whose applied teaching model produces engineers with unusual hands-on experience.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Drexel University

A Philadelphia university with an extensive co-op programme and a growing innovation district.

Claremont, California

Harvey Mudd College

A small undergraduate college with one of the strongest engineering and computing programmes in the country.

Needham, Massachusetts

Olin College of Engineering

A small engineering college founded to rethink how engineers are taught, built entirely around project work.

Irvine, California

UC Irvine

A fast-growing University of California campus at the centre of Orange County's medical device industry.

Santa Barbara, California

UC Santa Barbara

A campus with world-leading materials science, and the research base behind the blue LED.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

University of Minnesota

A major research university at the centre of the country's densest medical device cluster.

East Lansing, Michigan

Michigan State University

A land-grant university with top-ranked supply chain research and major agricultural science programmes.

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana University

A large public university with a well-regarded business school and strong ties to Indiana's life science industry.

Blacksburg, Virginia

Virginia Tech

A large engineering university expanding into the Washington area with a dedicated innovation campus.

Raleigh, North Carolina

North Carolina State University

The engineering anchor of the Research Triangle, with a large industry-integrated research campus.

Gainesville, Florida

University of Florida

A large land-grant university with one of the country's most productive technology licensing operations.

Athens, Georgia

University of Georgia

A land-grant university with major agricultural and vaccine research programmes near Atlanta.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Rutgers University

New Jersey's flagship university, embedded in one of the world's densest pharmaceutical corridors.

Stony Brook, New York

Stony Brook University

A New York research university partnered with Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Lehigh University

A mid-sized engineering university with strong materials research and an industrial heritage.

Hoboken, New Jersey

Stevens Institute of Technology

A technology institute across the river from Manhattan, strong in financial engineering and systems.

Worcester, Massachusetts

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

A project-based engineering institute with one of the earliest dedicated robotics engineering degrees.

Chicago, Illinois

Illinois Institute of Technology

A Chicago technology university with a renowned design school and strong engineering programmes.

Golden, Colorado

Colorado School of Mines

A specialist engineering university focused on earth resources, energy, and advanced materials.

Tucson, Arizona

University of Arizona

Home to one of the world's leading optical sciences colleges and major planetary science programmes.

Southern Methodist University

A Dallas private university with strong business and finance programmes serving the North Texas economy.

University of Houston

A large urban research university at the heart of the global energy industry.

Clemson, South Carolina

Clemson University

A land-grant university with a dedicated automotive research campus built alongside industry.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Tulane University

A private research university with strong medical and public health schools in a rebuilding city.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Wake Forest University

A private university whose regenerative medicine institute is among the largest of its kind.

Newark, Delaware

University of Delaware

A research university with deep chemical engineering roots and a large innovation campus.

Waltham, Massachusetts

Brandeis University

A small research university near Boston with notable biochemistry and neuroscience programmes.

Syracuse, New York

Syracuse University

A private university with the country's leading programmes for military veteran entrepreneurs.

Amherst, Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Massachusetts flagship, home to one of the world's leading polymer science departments.

San Jose, California

San Jose State University

The public university at the centre of Silicon Valley, and a primary supplier of its engineering workforce.

Cincinnati, Ohio

University of Cincinnati

The university that invented cooperative education, with a top-ranked industrial design programme.

Iowa State University

A land-grant university at the centre of American agriculture, with major plant science research.

Corvallis, Oregon

Oregon State University

A land-grant university with strong engineering, forestry, and ocean research programmes.

International

Universities Around the World

Oxford, United Kingdom

University of Oxford

One of the world's oldest universities, now a major source of life sciences and deep tech spinouts through a dedicated commercialisation model.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

University of Cambridge

The anchor of Silicon Fen, Europe's most established technology cluster, with deep semiconductor and AI heritage.

London, United Kingdom

Imperial College London

A science and engineering specialist in central London, with strong medtech and climate technology output.

Zürich, Switzerland

ETH Zürich

Continental Europe's leading technical university, producing a high volume of robotics and deep tech spinouts.

Lausanne, Switzerland

EPFL

Switzerland's French-speaking technical institute, with a large on-campus innovation park and strong robotics output.

Munich, Germany

TU Munich

Germany's most entrepreneurial technical university, anchored by the UnternehmerTUM venture centre.

Fontainebleau, France & Singapore

INSEAD

A multi-campus business school producing internationally mobile founders across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Technion

Israel's founding technical institute, central to the country's outsized technology and defence sector.

National University of Singapore

Southeast Asia's leading university and the anchor of Singapore's startup ecosystem.

NTU Singapore

A young engineering-focused university that has risen rapidly, with strength in materials, sustainability, and applied research.

Tsinghua University

China's leading engineering university and the country's most productive source of technology founders.

Peking University

China's leading comprehensive university, producing founders across internet, consumer, and life sciences sectors.

IIT Bombay

India's most prominent engineering institute, with an alumni base behind many of the country's largest technology companies.

New Delhi, India

IIT Delhi

A leading Indian engineering institute whose alumni founded several of the country's largest internet companies.

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

University of Waterloo

Canada's most entrepreneurial university, known for its co-op programme and an IP policy that lets students own what they build.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

University of Toronto

The intellectual home of modern deep learning, anchoring Toronto's AI cluster and Canada's largest venture market.

Daejeon, South Korea

KAIST

South Korea's leading science and technology institute, closely tied to the country's electronics and semiconductor industry.

London, United Kingdom

University College London

A large London research university with world-class neuroscience and a notable machine learning lineage.

London, United Kingdom

London School of Economics

A specialist social science institution whose graduates populate global finance, policy, and consulting.

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

University of Edinburgh

Scotland's leading research university, with one of Europe's largest informatics and AI research bases.

London, United Kingdom

King's College London

A London university with major clinical research strength across several large teaching hospitals.

Delft, Netherlands

Delft University of Technology

The Netherlands' leading technical university, with world-class quantum computing and engineering research.

Leuven, Belgium

KU Leuven

A Belgian research university beside imec, one of the world's most important semiconductor research institutes.

Palaiseau, France

École Polytechnique

France's most selective engineering school, at the centre of the Paris-Saclay research cluster.

Jouy-en-Josas, France

HEC Paris

France's leading business school, operating one of the largest startup incubators in Europe.

Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

Technical University of Denmark

Denmark's leading technical university, with internationally significant wind energy and biotechnology research.

Stockholm, Sweden

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Sweden's largest technical university, supplying talent to one of Europe's most productive startup cities.

Bocconi University

Italy's leading economics and business university, at the centre of Milan's financial and design economy.

Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College Dublin

Ireland's oldest university, at the centre of a country hosting most major American technology firms in Europe.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv University

Israel's largest university, embedded in one of the most founder-dense cities in the world.

Jerusalem, Israel

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Israel's oldest university, with a technology transfer arm among the most commercially successful anywhere.

University of Tokyo

Japan's most prestigious university, increasingly active in commercialising deep technology research.

Kyoto University

Japan's leading basic science university, known for independent research culture and Nobel-level output.

Seoul, South Korea

Seoul National University

South Korea's leading national university, closely tied to the country's semiconductor and electronics industries.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

A young research university with an outsized entrepreneurial record, beside the Shenzhen hardware corridor.

University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong's oldest university, with strong medical and legal faculties and access to Greater Bay Area markets.

Shanghai, China

Fudan University

One of China's most selective universities, at the centre of Shanghai's financial and biopharmaceutical economy.

Shanghai, China

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

A leading Chinese engineering university with deep industrial ties across manufacturing and transport.

Bengaluru, India

Indian Institute of Science

India's premier research institute for science and engineering, in the country's technology capital.

IIT Madras

An Indian Institute of Technology whose research park has become a model for university-industry collaboration.

Montreal, Canada

McGill University

A leading Canadian research university in a city that became a major centre for artificial intelligence research.

Vancouver, Canada

University of British Columbia

A major Canadian research university with strong quantum, life science, and clean technology programmes.

Melbourne, Australia

University of Melbourne

Australia's leading research university, anchoring a substantial biomedical precinct in Melbourne.

Sydney, Australia

UNSW Sydney

An Australian engineering powerhouse whose solar research underpins much of the world's photovoltaic industry.

Ahmedabad, India

IIM Ahmedabad

India's most selective business school, with a long-running incubator supporting startups nationwide.

Monterrey, Mexico

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Mexico's leading private university, with entrepreneurship embedded across a nationwide campus network.

Cape Town, South Africa

University of Cape Town

Africa's most highly ranked research university, in the continent's most active startup city.

Manchester, United Kingdom

University of Manchester

The birthplace of isolated graphene, and the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom.

Coventry, United Kingdom

University of Warwick

A research university with an applied manufacturing group working directly with the automotive industry.

Bristol, United Kingdom

University of Bristol

A leading British research university with pioneering quantum photonics work and aerospace ties.

Aalto University

A Finnish university formed by merging technology, business, and art schools, with an unusual student startup culture.

Politecnico di Milano

Italy's largest technical university, with a design school of international standing.

Barcelona, Spain

IESE Business School

A leading European business school with a strong general management tradition and global campuses.

Berlin, Germany

Technical University of Berlin

Berlin's technical university, supplying engineering talent to Germany's largest startup city.

Aachen, Germany

RWTH Aachen University

Germany's largest technical university, with an on-campus cluster built alongside industry.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

University of Amsterdam

A large Dutch research university with a strong machine learning group in a major European tech city.

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Eindhoven University of Technology

The technical university at the centre of Brainport, Europe's most important semiconductor equipment cluster.

Vienna, Austria

TU Wien

Austria's leading technical university, with strong quantum physics and engineering research.

Zurich, Switzerland

University of Zurich

Switzerland's largest university, working alongside ETH in one of Europe's strongest research cities.

Rehovot, Israel

Weizmann Institute of Science

A graduate-only research institute focused on fundamental science, with a highly effective licensing arm.

Beersheba, Israel

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Israel's southern research university, at the centre of a purpose-built national cybersecurity cluster.

Hangzhou, China

Zhejiang University

A leading Chinese university in Hangzhou, a city built around e-commerce and digital payments.

Chinese University of Hong Kong

A Hong Kong research university whose computer vision laboratory produced one of Asia's major AI companies.

National Taiwan University

Taiwan's leading university, embedded in the world's most important semiconductor manufacturing economy.

Osaka University

A major Japanese research university with world-class immunology and strong industrial engineering ties.

Pohang, South Korea

POSTECH

A small, research-intensive Korean university founded by a steel company to build domestic scientific capacity.

IIT Kanpur

An Indian Institute of Technology with a pioneering computer science department and a strong incubator.

Bengaluru, India

IIM Bangalore

A top Indian management institute whose incubator sits at the centre of Bengaluru's startup economy.

Hyderabad, India

Indian School of Business

A young Indian business school built on an international faculty model, with an active venture programme.

Sydney, Australia

University of Sydney

Australia's oldest university, with major medical research and a long-running student accelerator.

Canberra, Australia

Australian National University

Australia's national research university, with major physics, space, and public policy programmes.

Brisbane, Australia

University of Queensland

An Australian research university with an exceptional commercialisation record in vaccines and biotechnology.

Melbourne, Australia

Monash University

A large Australian university with major pharmaceutical research and campuses across several countries.

Auckland, New Zealand

University of Auckland

New Zealand's largest university, with one of the most active commercialisation companies in Australasia.

Montreal, Canada

Université de Montréal

A French-language research university at the centre of Montreal's deep learning community.

São Paulo, Brazil

University of São Paulo

Latin America's largest and most productive research university, in the region's biggest business city.

Santiago, Chile

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Chile's leading research university, central to Santiago's growing technology ecosystem.

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

KAUST

A graduate-only research university on the Red Sea, built with an endowment rivalling far older institutions.

Johannesburg, South Africa

University of the Witwatersrand

A leading South African university in Johannesburg, with world-class mining engineering and health research.

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