U of I ranks high in undergrad entrepreneurs getting venture funding, study shows

By Becky Yerak:

Over the past five years, 146 entrepreneurs with undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois have received venture-capital funding for businesses that they’ve started, more than any other college in the state and ranking 12th worldwide, according to a new study.

PitchBook, which provides research on private equity and venture capital industries, said the 146 entrepreneurs with undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois have raised $1.41 billion for 131 businesses. Among their companies: AvantCredit, Otonomy, ASSIA, C3 Energy, and Affirm.

Northwestern ranked 28th in undergraduate degrees for entrepreneurs who got venture capital funding. The top five were Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, Indian Institute of Technology and Harvard.

PitchBook also detailed which universities produced the most MBAs and women who got venture capital funding.

For MBAs of both genders who have gotten venture funding, Northwestern and the University of Chicago ranked fifth and eighth, respectively.

For female undergraduates, no Illinois school cracked the Top 10 for producing entrepreneurs getting venture funding.

For female MBAs, Northwestern and the University of Chicago ranked eighth and ninth, with eight and seven females, respectively, PitchBook said.