The University of Waterloo (UW) has taken seventh place in global rankings for university entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
This marks the first time a Canadian institution has scored among the top 10, in a report published by PitchBook, an independent venture capital research firm.<\/p>\n
Plan your journey to permanent residence with CanadaVisa+ UW was the top-scoring university outside the United States, and one of only two non-U.S. universities to make the top 10.<\/p>\n Of the publicly funded institutions, UW ranked second only to the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n The report, published Sept. 1, ranks institutions according to the number of undergraduate alumni who have gone on to found venture capital-backed companies.<\/p>\n It draws on an analysis of more than 222,000 VC-backed founders globally.<\/p>\n UW climbed 11 spots year-over-year after finishing 18th in last year’s undergraduate rankings.<\/p>\n High-profile companies founded by UW alumni include Instacart, Databricks, ContextLogic Holdings, Faire, and Netskope.<\/p>\n Which universities made the global top 10?<\/p>\n For the 100 best universities for undergraduate alumni entrepreneurs who\u2019ve raised venture capital in the last decade, here are the top 10 worldwide:<\/p>\n \tRankUniversityFounder count<\/p>\n \t1University of California, Berkeley2,380<\/p>\n \t2Stanford University1,997<\/p>\n \t3Harvard University1,697<\/p>\n \t4Cornell University1,541<\/p>\n \t5Massachusetts Institute of Technology1,525<\/p>\n \t6University of Pennsylvania1,466<\/p>\n \t7University of Waterloo1,303<\/p>\n \t8University of Michigan, Ann Arbor1,085<\/p>\n \t9Tel Aviv University1,084<\/p>\n \t10University of Texas at Austin1,036<\/p>\n Which Canadian universities appear among the top 100 universities worldwide?<\/p>\n Ontario alone accounted for five of Canada\u2019s eight universities in the undergraduate top 100, with the remaining spots going to institutions in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta.<\/p>\n The table below compares Canadian universities<\/a> by their national and global rankings, capital raised, and movement in the global rankings since 2025.<\/p>\n \tNational rankUniversityFounder countGlobal rank*Global rank shift (YoY)<\/p>\n \t1University of Waterloo1,3037+11<\/p>\n \t2University of Toronto80817__<\/p>\n \t3McGill University72123-1<\/p>\n \t4Western University54836+4<\/p>\n \t5University of British Columbia47243+1<\/p>\n \t6Queen\u2019s University31978__<\/p>\n \t7University of Calgary24996+4<\/p>\n \t8York University24898+2<\/p>\n *If an \u201c\u2014\u201d is present, this indicates that the university\u2019s global rank has not changed from 2025 to 2026.<\/p>\n Methodology<\/p>\n The report is based on the total number of founders whose companies received a round of venture funding between Jan. 1\u2013Aug. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n For the purposes of this report, venture funding includes Seed, Early Stage VC, Later Stage VC, Angel, Restart Early Stage VC, Restart Later Stage VC, and Restart Angel Rounds.<\/p>\n The 2026 rankings were created using PitchBook\u2019s data for global VC investment, along with educational information on over 222,000 founders.<\/p>\n The report represents the 13th edition of PitchBook\u2019s annual \u201cTop 100 Universities Ranked for Entrepreneurs<\/a>\u201d ranking.<\/p>\n The annual report ranks universities based on how many startup founders can be traced back to their undergraduate and graduate programs; the top 100 institutions are published for each.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n