Canadian first: Waterloo breaks into global top 10 for producing entrepreneurs

 The University of Waterloo in Ontario has achieved a first for Canadian higher education, ranking seventh worldwide in PitchBook’s 2026 university rankings for producing startup founders and becoming the first Canadian institution to enter the global top 10.

Waterloo ranked first among Canadian universities and emerged as the highest-ranked university outside the United States, jumping 11 positions from 18th place in the 2025 undergraduate rankings.

PitchBook's rankings are based on the number of university alumni who have founded companies that received venture capital funding, rather than relying primarily on academic reputation surveys. The 2026 edition drew on educational and investment data covering more than 222,000 VC-backed founders worldwide.

Waterloo recorded 1,303 undergraduate founders in the ranking, whose companies have raised approximately US$63 billion in capital, according to information published by the university.

The University of California, Berkeley topped the global table with 2,380 founders, followed by Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. Waterloo placed seventh, ahead of the University of Michigan, Tel Aviv University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Seven other Canadian institutions also appeared in the global top 100, including the University of Toronto at No. 17, McGill University at No. 23, Western University at No. 36, and the University of British Columbia at No. 43.

Among publicly funded universities, Waterloo ranked second worldwide behind Berkeley and was one of only two non-U.S. institutions to make the global top 10.

Waterloo also made gains in PitchBook's ranking of universities producing female founders, rising to 11th globally and being identified as the fastest-rising institution in that undergraduate category.

Companies founded by Waterloo alumni include Databricks, Instacart, ContextLogic Holdings and Arctic Wolf. The university says its flagship Velocity entrepreneurship program has helped more than 560 startups grow into companies that have generated more than $40 billion in enterprise value.