Skip to Content

Stanford Grads Raise the Most Startup Capital

A report compares the fundraising success of alumni startups at top universities
October 29, 2012

Universities of all ilk have started incubators and accelerator programs to nurture student startups in the last few years. But aside from fanfare demo days, it’s hard to track the success of these kinds of programs.

That may be one reason for today’s report by the firm CB Insights. It claims to be the first-ever effort to track and measure entrepreneurship activity from top universities. The firm limited itself to six schools—Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT—and looked at money raised over the last five years by companies founded or led by alumni (or dropouts, in the case of Facebook founder and erstwhile Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg).

Stanford, with its proximity to Silicon Valley, unsurprisingly dominated the list. Companies associated with the school raised  $4.1 billion across 203 financing rounds from 2007 to 2011, the report says. In total, companies associated with all six universities raised $12.6 billion through 559 transactions in that same period.

Reflecting overall priorities for investors for the last few years, most funding went to software, semiconductor and chip-focused startups. But MIT and U.C. Berkeley-associated companies also were able to mix it up more, attracting a greater number of investors to the healthcare and energy sectors. NYU, which operates in the heart of New York City’s resurgent startup scene, had one of the faster funding growth rates.

As much as football games, report like these are sure to stoke the competitive fires between entrepreneurship programs at these schools.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI

The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models. 

Everything you need to know about artificial wombs

Artificial wombs are nearing human trials. But the goal is to save the littlest preemies, not replace the uterus.

Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist

An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.

Data analytics reveal real business value

Sophisticated analytics tools mine insights from data, optimizing operational processes across the enterprise.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.