In a recent study, five Israeli universities were ranked as the best in the world for producing graduates who have founded U.S.-based unicorn startups (startups valued at more than $1 billion). The study did not include U.S.-based institutions.
The study was conducted by Ilya Strebulaev, a Russian-American financial economist, researcher, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and founder of the Venture Capital Initiative, which promotes research on innovation and venture capital.
Strebulaev’s study looked at 1,110 U.S.-based, venture capital-backed unicorn companies founded between 1997 and 2021, listing the universities where at least 10 unicorn founders studied and the probability that each university would produce a unicorn founder.
Technion graduates are 25 times more likely to become founders of US unicorn companies.
Tsinghua University and Reichman University follow with 11.3, followed by INSEAD, Ben-Gurion University and Tel Aviv University.#venturemindset #Israel #unicorn pic.twitter.com/WhnTgKkcMU
— Ilya Strebulaev (@IlyaStrebulaev) June 5, 2024
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology ranked first among 17 schools on the list, with its graduates being at least 25 times more likely to become U.S.-based unicorn founders than its graduates. Thirty-one of the U.S.-based unicorn founders surveyed are Technion alumni.
Reichman University ranked second in the rankings, tied with China’s Tsinghua University, whose graduates are 11.3 times more likely to become U.S.-based unicorn founders than China’s Tsinghua University. Between them, the two universities produced 14 of the unicorn founders listed in the study.
It was followed by the European Institute of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI).
The world-renowned British universities of Cambridge and Oxford came in 8th and 11th place respectively, surprisingly lagging behind their Israeli counterparts.
Last year, TAU was ranked No. 1 outside the U.S. for the number one school producing tech unicorn founders, and has 43 unicorn founder alumni, according to a study also conducted by Strebulaev.
