Illinois is among the nation's top schools for producing quality entrepreneurs according PitchBook's 2018-2019 report for the Top 50 Universities producing VC- back entrepreneurs.
The report looks at a variety of factors including unicorns, female founders, and serial entrepreneurs. Illinois ranked particularly high in six areas:
- #1 among Illinois schools for developing entrepreneurs
- #10 among national universities for undergraduate venture-backed startups
- #18 in national performance of undergraduate female founders
- #5 among undergraduate programs for producing unicorns, companies with valuation over $1 billion
- #13 in producing the most serial entrepreneurs
- #10 in exits
Entrepreneurship is a key part of life for Illinois students, and the campus has a number of resources to support the idea of students, alumni, and faculty. The Technology Entrepreneurship Center provides students and faculty with the skills, resources and experiences necessary to become successful innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Programs like the Cozad New Venture Challenge, Illinois Innovation Prize, and NSF I-Corps and Illinois help connect our students and faculty with resources and opportunities to help them take their businesses from an idea to a full-fledged start-up.