University of Waterloo breaks Canada into world’s top 10 for entrepreneurship

The University of Waterloo (UW) has taken seventh place in global rankings for university entrepreneurship

This marks the first time a Canadian institution has scored among the top 10, in a report an independent venture capital research firm

UW was the top-scoring university outside the United States, and one of only two non-U.S. universities to make the top 10

Of the publicly funded institutions, UW ranked second only to the University of California, Berkeley

The report, published Sept. 1, ranks institutions according to the number of undergraduate alumni who have gone on to found venture capital-backed companies

It draws on an analysis of more than 222,000 VC-backed founders globally

UW climbed 11 spots year-over-year after finishing 18th in last year’s undergraduate rankings

High-profile companies founded by UW alumni includeInstacart, Databricks, ContextLogic Holdings, Faire, and Netskope

Which universities made the global top 10?

For the 100 best universities for undergraduate alumni entrepreneurs who’ve raised venture capital in the last decade, here are the top 10 worldwide:

Rank	University	Founder count
1	University of California, Berkeley	2,380
2	Stanford University	1,997
3	Harvard University	1,697
4	Cornell University	1,541
5	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1,525
6	University of Pennsylvania	1,466
7	University of Waterloo	1,303
8	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	1,085
9	Tel Aviv University	1,084
10	University of Texas at Austin	1,036

Which Canadian universities appear among the top 100 universities worldwide?

Ontario alone accounted for five of Canada’s eight universities in the undergraduate top 100, with the remaining spots going to institutions in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta

The table below compares Canadian universities by their national and global rankings, capital raised, and movement in the global rankings since 2025

National rank	University	Founder count	Global rank	*Global rank shift (YoY)
1	University of Waterloo	1,303	7	+11
2	University of Toronto	808	17	__
3	McGill University	721	23	-1
4	Western University	548	36	+4
5	University of British Columbia	472	43	+1
6	Queen’s University	319	78	__
7	University of Calgary	249	96	+4
8	York University	248	98	+2

*If an “—” is present, this indicates that the university’s global rank has not changed from 2025 to 2026

Methodology

The report is based on the total number of founders whose companies received a round of venture funding between Jan. 1–Aug. 1, 2026

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

The 2026 rankings were created using PitchBook’s data for global VC investment, along with educational information on over 222,000 founders

The report represents the 13th edition of PitchBook’s annual “Top 100 Universities Ranked for Entrepreneurs” ranking

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

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Source: www.cicnews.com