Stanford alumni responsible for most venture capital funding

Oct. 29, 2012, 11:25 p.m.

The University Entrepreneurship Report, released Monday by CB Insights, said that Stanford alumni raised the most funding of six universities studied for venture capital and angel deals from 2007 to 2011. Graduates or dropouts from the schools studied in the report – Stanford, Harvard, MIT, NYU, UC-Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania – were responsible for $12.6 billion in transactions over 559 deals.

Stanford alumni companies made 203 venture capital and angel deals, totaling $4.1 billion in investment funding.

Harvard came in second in both categories, with its alumni making 112 deals for $3.8 billion in investment. However, if financing associated with Facebook is exempted from calculations then Harvard’s funding for investment drops to $1.8 billion.

UC-Berkeley came in third in both categories, with 90 investment deals and $1.3 billion in investment. NYU and UPenn both had $1.2 billion in investment, with NYU netting 48 venture capital and angel deals and UPenn making 46. MIT was fourth in number of deals with 60 but sixth in amount of investment by university alumni with $1.0 billion.

The study also measured which universities are growing the fastest in the venture capital investment world, with Harvard and NYU posting the highest rates of growth in financial activity since 2007.

In an analysis of where the university alumni set up shop, UC-Berkeley was best at keeping graduates close to home (88 percent of companies were based in California) with Stanford as a close second (85 percent stayed in California). Harvard and UPenn tied for the fewest alumni staying in state with their company (35 percent each).

The majority of alumni companies from all six schools in the study were in the technology sector. Stanford had the highest proportion of tech companies (77 percent) while UC-Berkeley had the lowest (50 percent).

Alice Phillips '15 is Managing Editor of News at The Stanford Daily. Previously, she worked as the paper's Deputy Editor, Chief Copy Editor, a News Desk Editor and a News Staff Writer. Alice is a biology major from Los Angeles, California.

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