The prestigious PitchBook entrepreneurship ranking for 2023 places Tel Aviv University (TAU) in seventh place globally and first place outside the US for the second year in a row.

TAU graduates are at the top of the global entrepreneurship list thanks to 825 undergraduate entrepreneurs at TAU, who have founded 692 companies that have raised a total capital of $26.3 billion. The ranking, released annually by business data company PitchBook, ranks the world’s top 100 universities in the number of entrepreneurial graduates who have raised money from venture capital funds.

At the top of the list are US universities Stanford, USC Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania, but TAU is ahead of other leading US universities such as UCLA and Yale. According to PitchBook’s ranking, three more Israeli universities were included in the prestigious list: the Technion at #16, Hebrew University at #29, and Ben Gurion University at #46.

“It is hard to underestimate the importance of this achievement,” says Professor Moshe Zviran, Head of TAU’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department. “The PitchBook ranking is a benchmark for entrepreneurial excellence at the highest level in the world. Our high position in this ranking is the result of promoting the warmth of entrepreneurship and innovation at TAU in the widest destination of knowledge on campus and creating a particularly fertile entrepreneurial climate for young entrepreneurs — both graduates and faculty members — who establish start-up companies.

“The diverse tool basket that our students receive during their studies is immediately used in establishing these companies. We are proud of our graduates and students for the achievement, and we will continue to work to strengthen TAU’s position at the top of global entrepreneurship.”

The full PitchBook list is available here.