Two Israeli universities rank among the world’s top 10 for the number of undergraduate alumni who founded startups that raised venture capital, according to the latest ranking released by Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, one of the world’s largest and most influential venture capital firms.
The ranking, based on data from research firm PitchBook covering the end of 2025 and early 2026, places Tel Aviv University seventh, with about 865 alumni founders who have raised roughly $30 billion. The Technion — Israel Institute of Technology — ranks 10th, with about 783 alumni founders who have raised $23 billion. The data covers the past decade.
Israel is the only country outside the United States with two institutions in the top 10, underscoring the strength of its high-tech sector relative to its population size.
According to Andreessen Horowitz, Israeli institutions — along with Indian ones — outperform elite U.S. Ivy League schools in “founder efficiency,” a measure of how many entrepreneurs emerge per 1,000 students.
The University of California, Berkeley, tops the list by number of founders, with 1,804. However, the University of Pennsylvania, which ranks fourth with 1,206 founders, leads in total capital raised by alumni, at more than $120 billion, compared with $69 billion raised by Berkeley alumni.
The report is not based on surveys but on an analysis of PitchBook’s database, which includes more than 170,000 entrepreneurs worldwide who raised venture capital between 2014 and 2025. It includes only founders who secured institutional venture funding, excluding self-funding or solely government grants.
Andreessen Horowitz also identifies three institutions as dominant hubs in the artificial intelligence boom over the past two years: Stanford University, described as the world’s largest “AI factory”; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which leads in deep tech AI — combining artificial intelligence with robotics, hardware and biotechnology; and the University of Toronto, ranked as the most important AI center outside the United States. The Technion and Tel Aviv University stand out for producing AI entrepreneurs in fields such as cybersecurity and computer vision.
The analysis also finds that Stanford alumni raise the highest average funding per founder. It notes a shift from the previous decade, with more entrepreneurs choosing to remain in academia to complete advanced degrees in AI in order to gain a technological edge before entering the market.
According to Andreessen Horowitz, 2026 marks a “golden age” for young entrepreneurs: a 20-year-old university student with access to computing power can now build products that once required a team of 50. The firm analyzes such data to identify markets where “capital is cheap but talent is expensive.” If Tel Aviv University produces more startup founders than Yale University while Israeli companies are valued lower in their early stages, it signals an opportunity to expand its presence and investments in Israel.