Stanford University in California led the global chart
Robert Pisarczyk and Jack Fitzsimons of UCD startup Oblivious. Photo: NovaUCD
University College Dublin has been ranked as one of Europe’s best universities for producing tech startup founders.
Rankings published last week by venture capital (VC) research firm PitchBook placed UCD fifth in Europe, with regard to the value of venture funding raised by tech startups founded by alumni of undergraduate courses.
With UCD placed at fifth, it is the top-performing EU university in terms of former students going on to raise VC cash at their companies.
The top four were all British universities, with Oxford taking the number one spot. Eight British universities featured in the top 10 list.
PitchBook’s rankings cited Dubliner Barry Canton who co-founded US-based biotech firm Ginkgo Bioworks, which raised nearly $800m before going public, and Alison Darcy, who leads mental health tech startup Woebot, which has raised nearly $140m.
UCD runs several programmes at its campus aimed at developing tech startups, such as NovaUCD, which supports early-stage companies and provides bases for startups to operate from. There’s also the AgTechUCD Innovation Centre, which focuses on agriculture technology.
Oblivious, a cybersecurity startup headquartered at NovaUCD, raised €5.35m earlier this year.
Trinity College placed 15th in the rankings, with references to alumni-led companies like LetsGetChecked.
University College Cork came 20th and Dublin City University took the 30th position in the list.
Pitchbook published separate lists for alumni of graduate programmes and MBAs. UCD and other Irish universities did not rank as high in these.
Oxford and Cambridge dominated the top two spots on all European rankings.
Stanford University in California led the global chart in terms of alumni of both graduate and undergraduate courses raising funds from VCs. Harvard led the MBA chart.
PitchBook said that the rankings are based on an analysis of more than 150,000 VC-backed founders.
