A research conducted by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business professor Ilya Strebulaev found that graduates from Israeli universities have the highest chance of founding a startup company in the United States valued at over a billion dollars, also known as a “unicorn”. The study looked at non-US universities whose graduates have founded at least 10 unicorns, with a total of 17 institutions making the list, five of which are Israeli.
According to the study, graduates from Technion in Haifa and Reichmann University (formerly Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center) are most likely to start a unicorn startup. Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University also ranked highly in the study, coming in fifth, sixth, and seventh place respectively.
Tel Aviv University had the highest number of unicorn startup founders in the United States with 42 such startups. The Technion followed closely behind with 31 “unicorns”, while Hebrew University had 27 alumni who founded “unicorns” in the United States. Ben-Gurion and Reichman universities also had 17 and 14 alumni who founded “unicorns” in the United States respectively.
The list of 17 universities includes representatives from India, Canada, the UK, France, and China as well.
