Tel Aviv University ranks as top non-U.S. unicorn start-up breeder

Tel Aviv University ranks as the leading unicorn start-up breeder outside of the United States, according to a recent Stanford University study. A unicorn is defined as a start-up company valued at over $1 billion.

The study examined some 1,100 startups worldwide that succeeded in raising more than $1 billion. Statistics showed Stanford University as the top worldwide academic institution with the highest number of unicorns established by its alumni.

The director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tel Aviv University (TAU) Prof. Moshe Zviran said the study affirms Tel Aviv's position as the center of the Israeli Start-Up Nation.

"Professor Strebulaev's findings prove once again that Tel Aviv University is Israel's entrepreneurial university, nurturing more startups, and in particular more unicorns, than any other university in the country," Zviran stated.

The TAU professor further credited his institution’s focus on quality students and the merger of innovation and entrepreneurship.

"We have achieved this status because we welcome the best students in a wide range of disciplines, and also because in recent years we have become proactive in the spheres of entrepreneurship and innovation," Zviran continued.

"We made a strategic decision to position Tel Aviv as Israel's leading entrepreneurial university and proactively strengthen our technological and business advantage as a means of producing startups and unicorns. Until now, these achievements have been based solely on the exceptional quality of our faculty, our students and our program," he added.

In March, a separate study ranked Tel Aviv as the fifth largest producer of unicorns worldwide. In addition, the Jewish state’s commercial center is ranked as one of the most valuable innovative startup ecosystems, with an accumulated value of $393 billion. This amount is reportedly more than three times that of 2018.

Three Israeli academic institutions – the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – ranked among the world’s 100 leading universities, according to a recent Academic Ranking of World Universities report.