912 TAU undergraduate alumni, who have founded 761 companies and raised $26.8 billion in venture capital, make Tel Aviv University (TAU) eighth in the world and first outside the US among universities that produce successful entrepreneurs, according to the financial data company PitchBook.

Topping the 2021 PitchBook list are four leading American universities: Stanford University (1), UC Berkeley (2), Harvard Univeristy (3), and MIT (4). Tel Aviv University’s spot in eighth place was followed by elite institutions like Yale (11), Princeton (13), and UCLA (14). Three other Israeli universities are also included in PitchBook’s top 50: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ranked 12th, The Hebrew University ranked 31st, and Ben-Gurion University ranked 44th.

This remarkable achievement comes on the heels of the 2021 ranking by research and policy advisory organization Startup Genome, in which TAU, the only Israeli representative, was ranked fifth in the world for entrepreneurship.

In PitchBook’s separate global ranking for MBA programs, TAU’s Coller School of Management ranked 13th of 25 in producing MBA graduates who have founded venture capital-backed companies. Harvard, Stanford, and Whaton MBAs placed at the top of this list, while the MBA programs at Yale, Oxford, Cornell, Duke, and other leading institutions ranked after the Coller School. Altogether, 351 alumni with MBAs from TAU have raised a total of $8.8 billion for founding 330 companies, with the highest investments registered in Wiliot, Fabric, BlueVine, Forter, Houzz, and others.

“We are proud of the high international positioning of Tel Aviv University and the Coller School of Management,” says Professor Moshe Zviran, Dean of the Coller School of Management and Chief Entrepreneurship and Innovation Officer at TAU. “Our place among the world’s leading institutions reflects the achievements of our alumni and their contribution to the establishment and accelerated growth of many companies. The extensive knowledge, insight, and toolbox acquired by students in all our programs and specializations assist our alumni in their entrepreneurial activities, giving them significant added value in the global technological and business arena.”

TAU also leads in PitchBook’s world ranking of female entrepreneurs who have founded companies with venture capital backing, placing 20th for TAU’s female undergraduate alumni and ranking 14th for female graduates of the Coller School’s MBA program.

The 2021 university rankings are based on the number of founders whose companies received a first round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2006 and Oct. 31, 2021. These founders received their undergraduate or MBA education from the universities outlined in this list.