Waterloo Leads Canada in Global Entrepreneurship Ranking

The University of Waterloo has reached seventh place in a global ranking of universities producing venture-backed entrepreneurs, marking a major first for Canada.

The Ontario university is the first Canadian institution to enter the global top 10 in PitchBook’s annual university entrepreneurship rankings. The venture capital research firm published its latest report on Sept. 1.

Waterloo also ranked as the highest university outside the United States and was one of only two non-U.S. institutions in the top 10.

Among publicly funded universities, Waterloo placed second, behind only the University of California, Berkeley.

Waterloo Makes Major Jump

The ranking measures universities based on the number of undergraduate alumni who have founded companies that later received venture capital funding.

PitchBook analyzed educational and investment information connected to more than 222,000 venture-backed founders worldwide.

Waterloo recorded 1,303 founders in the latest ranking, helping the university rise 11 positions from 18th place last year to seventh in 2026.

Several major technology companies have been founded by University of Waterloo alumni, including Instacart, Databricks, ContextLogic Holdings, Faire and Netskope.

The University of California, Berkeley led the global rankings with 2,380 founders. Stanford University followed with 1,997, while Harvard University ranked third with 1,697.

Cornell University placed fourth with 1,541 founders, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 1,525 and the University of Pennsylvania with 1,466.

Waterloo came next in seventh place.

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ranked eighth, followed by Tel Aviv University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Eight Canadian Universities Reach Top 100

Canada had eight universities among the global top 100 for undergraduate alumni entrepreneurs.

Ontario accounted for five of them.

The University of Toronto ranked second in Canada and 17th globally with 808 founders. McGill University followed at 23rd worldwide with 721 founders.

Western University placed 36th globally with 548 founders, while the University of British Columbia ranked 43rd with 472.

Queen’s University came in at 78th with 319 founders.

The University of Calgary ranked 96th with 249 founders, while York University placed 98th with 248.

Several Canadian institutions also moved higher compared with their 2025 rankings. Western climbed four positions, UBC gained one, Calgary rose four and York moved up two places. McGill slipped one position.

How the Ranking Was Calculated

PitchBook’s 2026 ranking considers founders whose companies received qualifying venture funding between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1, 2026.

Eligible funding includes seed, early-stage and later-stage venture capital, angel investment and several restart funding categories.

PitchBook combined its global venture capital investment data with educational information from more than 222,000 founders to prepare the rankings.

The 2026 report marks the 13th edition of PitchBook’s annual “Top 100 Universities Ranked for Entrepreneurs.”

The organization publishes separate rankings for undergraduate and graduate programs, measuring how many startup founders can be linked to each institution.