These 15 Universities Produce The Most $1 billion Business Startup Founders

Stanford University in California tops the table with 51 unicorn founders as alumni, while Harvard University, the world’s wealthiest university, comes second with 37 founders of $1 billion business start-ups, a new study has revealed.

Coined by the venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013, the term “UNICORM” is used to describe enterprise start-ups that have grown from nothing to be worth at least $1 billion.

The US dominance:

American institutions account for nine of the top fifteen most popular universities that are churning out unicorn founders like hot cakes.

The first non-US university is in 4th place with a combined figure for all the Indian Institutes of Technology – a network of 23 institutions across India. The success of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) reflects verall improvements in the Indian higher education system.

India increased its share of universities in the QS BRICS Rankings 2018 compared to last year. It’s the third most represented country, with 65 universities in the top 300 and 14 in the top 100.

Other than the Indian Institute of Technology (India), Oxford University (U.K.), Israel’s Tel Aviv University, the University of Waterloo in Canada, France’s INSEAD, and WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, every university on this list is located in the United States.

Which universities did unicorn founders go to?

1. Stanford University (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 51
2. Harvard University (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 37
3. University of California (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 18
4. Indian Institutes of Technology (India)
   Number of unicorns founded: 12
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 9
6. University of Pennsylvania (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 9
7. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
   Number of unicorns founded: 8
8. Tel Aviv University (Israel)
   Number of unicorns founded: 7
9. Cornell University (United States)
   Number of unicorns founded: 6
10. University of Southern California (United States)
    Number of unicorns founded: 6
11. University of Waterloo (Canada)
    Number of unicorns founded: 6
12. INSEAD (France)
    Number of unicorns founded: 5
13. WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany)
    Number of unicorns founded: 5
14. University of Michigan (United States)
    Number of unicorns founded: 5
15. Brigham Young University (United States)
    Number of unicorns founded: 5