Israeli Universities Rank Among Top Globally for Founders of US Unicorns with Advanced Degrees

Three Israeli universities rank among the top five worldwide for the number of non-American graduates with research master's degrees who founded unicorn startups in the United States. Tel Aviv University holds third place globally, following the UK’s Cambridge and Oxford universities. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ranks fourth, and the Technion shares fifth place with the University of Toronto. These findings were published by Professor Ilia Strboliev of Stanford University, who studies venture capital and innovation.

According to Strboliev’s data, 12 founders of deep tech unicorns completed their research master’s degrees at Tel Aviv University, compared to 19 at Cambridge and 16 at Oxford. The Hebrew University produced eight founders, while the Technion and Toronto each produced seven. Bar-Ilan University also ranks among the top 15, with four founders. Strboliev identified 347 research master’s graduates from 206 universities outside the US who founded 270 unicorn companies.

The study focuses exclusively on research master’s degree holders, excluding those with non-thesis master’s degrees or bachelor’s degrees, where Israeli performance is reportedly even stronger. Strboliev notes that British universities lead in research master’s degrees but are not top-ranked for bachelor’s degrees, where Israeli and Indian universities dominate for unicorn founders.

In 2024, Tel Aviv University led in the total number of US unicorn founders across all degree types with 42 founders, followed by the Technion with 31 and Reichman University with 14, though these figures may have been updated since. While this highlights Israeli academic excellence in tech entrepreneurship, it also underscores a challenge for Israel’s economy, as many of these unicorns are established abroad rather than domestically.