The University of Washington is ranked No. 24 in a new list of the top 100 universities in the world based on the number of alumni entrepreneurs who came out of the schools and founded venture capital-backed companies.
The university rankings from investment data research firm PitchBook include undergraduate and graduate listings as well as those for startups led by female founders. PitchBook says its data was used to analyze more than 144,000 VC-backed founders.
PitchBook’s undergraduate tally for the UW includes 456 founders, 413 startups and $11.8 billion in capital raised. The Seattle-based university was 30th on the graduate list with 420 founders, 346 startups and $10 billion raised. The UW was 21st in female founders/undergrad and 29th in female founders/graduate.
Stanford University topped both undergrad and graduate lists as well as the undergrad list for female founders.
Washington State University, the University of Oregon and Oregon State did not crack the top 100.
According to PitchBook’s methodology, the rankings now capture founders who received funding in the preceding decade.
The UW has spun out a number of high-profile startups in recent years, including Icosavax, Zap Energy, OctoML, and others.
The UW is known globally for its research prowess. It ranked No. 17 worldwide and No. 3 among public universities in the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities. It’s No. 6 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022-2023 Best Global Universities Rankings.
PitchBook said Monday that its rankings are an attempt to answer the question of which colleges do the best job educating entrepreneurs. Key takeaways include how North American universities fare as well as how school size factors into the equation.
