University and Entrepreneurship in the USA

In a quite favorable environment for the entrepreneurship in the United States, "The University Entrepreneurship Report", recently published by CB Insights - venture capital and angel investment database and portal – is the first-ever effort to track and measure the entrepreneurship activity of the six top U.S. universities:

• Stanford University,
• Harvard University, 
• University of California, Berkeley, 
• New York University, 
• University of  Pennsylvania, 
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

More specifically, this report is the outcome of the observation of the companies founded by or led by the alumni of the above universities, and the venture capital or angel financing they have raised between 2007 and 2011. Thus, an amount of $12.6 billion through 559 transactions was reached.

Enjoying a strategic geographic location near Silicon Valley (California), Stanford ranks first with $4.1 billion generated by its alumni's companies. Harvard is second with 3.8 billion (if Facebook included) or 1.8 billion (without Facebook), the other four universities representing investments ranging from 1 to 1.3 billion.