For the third straight year, UC Berkeley has topped the list as the nation's best public university for startup founders and  remains the second-best university among both private and public schools, according to Pitchbook’s 2021 annual rankings of universities.

"Berkeley is on fire, in terms of entrepreneurship," says Berkeley Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer Rich Lyons. "These rankings validate not just our strength, but also our advances relative to other great universities. It's in keeping with all the excitement Berkeley startups bring to their respective fields."

Pitchbook, a data provider for private- and public-equity markets, ranks the top undergraduate programs for startup founders based on the number of founders whose companies received a first round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2006, and Oct. 31, 2021. Founders included in the data received their undergraduate or master’s degrees from the universities included on the list. There were 1,548 founders from UC Berkeley.

Pitchbook also ranked Berkeley third in undergraduate programs for female founders and ninth in master’s in business administration programs.

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