The University of Warsaw is the only Polish university featured in the ranking of the 20 institutions outside the US whose graduates have founded the most “unicorn” companies in the United States. These are private start-ups whose market value has exceeded one billion dollars.

“It is with great pleasure that, for yet another year, I have been observing the business successes of our graduates – both the major ones and the smaller ones. We belong to an elite and highly prestigious group of universities outside the United States whose graduates are achieving success in the world’s most competitive market,” says Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the UW Rector.

The Venture Capital Initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business has compiled a ranking of the 20 universities outside the US whose graduates, upon completing their master’s programmes, go on to found the most “unicorn” companies in the United States – that is, private start-ups with a valuation exceeding one billion dollars.

The University of Warsaw ranks seventh on the list – the only university from Poland to be featured. According to the ranking, the UW has five such graduates (the same number is also recorded for Tsinghua University in China, the University of Edinburgh in the UK and the International Space University in France). The top two places are held by the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, with 19 and 16 founders of unicorn companies, respectively. The University of Copenhagen – one of the University of Warsaw’s seven partners in the 4EU+ Alliance – came in 15th place.

The full ranking can be found on the LinkedIn profile of Prof. Ilya Strebulaev from Stanford GSB >>

A ranking compiled by the Venture Capital Initiative at Stanford GSB