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This may come as a pleasant surprise to many Indians. Indeed, it came as a surprise even to the US research firm that conducted the study.
IITians are among the leading founders of startups in the US. The study places the IITs among the top 10 higher educational institutes in the world that have produced founders of US startups that have raised their first round of venture capital (VC) since 2010.
In fact, the IITs are the only non-US university in the list prepared by PE/VC database firm PitchBook. The list is led, as many familiar with startups would expect, by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley.
PitchBook had this to say about the IIT entry: "Perhaps the most interesting, and rather unexpected, entry on the list comes in at No. 10 - the Indian Institutes of Technology. India's entry in the top 10 was definitely a surprise, but with that country's boom in the IT industry over the last couple of decades, it stands to reason that Indian schools are producing innovative thinkers to fuel that country's - and the world's - rapidly growing and increasingly technology-reliant economy."
The IITs accounted for 77 startup founders raising VC money. Stanford topped with 190 alumni receiving their first round of VC funding, followed by UC Berkeley with 160 and University of Pennsylvania with 131.
"The IITs are a proxy for academic capabilities recognized around the world. Talent is the key filter in the IIT structure and the sharpest make the cut. The peer influence of the romance of entrepreneurship has rub-off effects among batch mates," said Rajiv Srivatsa, an IIT-Madras alumnus who co-founded Urban Ladder, an e-shopping portal for furniture.
Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal, an IIT-Delhi alumnus, said the ranking did not surprise him. "Indians, especially IITians, have always been deeply involved in the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley, both as founders and early employees. The IITs attract the top minds in the country - pushing them to excel among their highly talented peers. The institutes also actively encourage independent thinking - this is especially true of the newer generation of IITians," he said.
IIT-Madras alumnus Gururaj Deshpande's networking products company Sycamore Networks had a spectacular IPO in 1999, with its market capitalization touching $14.4 billion on day 1, and became the face of Indian entrepreneurship in the Valley. More recently, Abheek Anand and fellow IITian Sohan Majumdar sold their mobile-based customer loyalty startup Tagtile to Facebook. It is estimated that around 60,000 IIT alumni currently live in the US.
"I am not surprised at all. (But) I have constantly been surprised how much we underestimate the talent that this country has. It is also said that Indians rank quite high on the hard work that they put in," said Vijay Anand, founder of Startup Centre, an early stage accelerator for Indian startups.
Aneesh Reddy, co-founder of Capillary Technologies, which provides customer management solutions to retailers, said 90 out of the 320-odd employees in the firm are IITians.
IITians in top 10 list of US startup founders - The Times of India
IITians are among the leading founders of startups in the US. The study places the IITs among the top 10 higher educational institutes in the world that have produced founders of US startups that have raised their first round of venture capital (VC) since 2010.
In fact, the IITs are the only non-US university in the list prepared by PE/VC database firm PitchBook. The list is led, as many familiar with startups would expect, by Stanford and University of California, Berkeley.
PitchBook had this to say about the IIT entry: "Perhaps the most interesting, and rather unexpected, entry on the list comes in at No. 10 - the Indian Institutes of Technology. India's entry in the top 10 was definitely a surprise, but with that country's boom in the IT industry over the last couple of decades, it stands to reason that Indian schools are producing innovative thinkers to fuel that country's - and the world's - rapidly growing and increasingly technology-reliant economy."
The IITs accounted for 77 startup founders raising VC money. Stanford topped with 190 alumni receiving their first round of VC funding, followed by UC Berkeley with 160 and University of Pennsylvania with 131.
"The IITs are a proxy for academic capabilities recognized around the world. Talent is the key filter in the IIT structure and the sharpest make the cut. The peer influence of the romance of entrepreneurship has rub-off effects among batch mates," said Rajiv Srivatsa, an IIT-Madras alumnus who co-founded Urban Ladder, an e-shopping portal for furniture.
Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal, an IIT-Delhi alumnus, said the ranking did not surprise him. "Indians, especially IITians, have always been deeply involved in the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley, both as founders and early employees. The IITs attract the top minds in the country - pushing them to excel among their highly talented peers. The institutes also actively encourage independent thinking - this is especially true of the newer generation of IITians," he said.
IIT-Madras alumnus Gururaj Deshpande's networking products company Sycamore Networks had a spectacular IPO in 1999, with its market capitalization touching $14.4 billion on day 1, and became the face of Indian entrepreneurship in the Valley. More recently, Abheek Anand and fellow IITian Sohan Majumdar sold their mobile-based customer loyalty startup Tagtile to Facebook. It is estimated that around 60,000 IIT alumni currently live in the US.
"I am not surprised at all. (But) I have constantly been surprised how much we underestimate the talent that this country has. It is also said that Indians rank quite high on the hard work that they put in," said Vijay Anand, founder of Startup Centre, an early stage accelerator for Indian startups.
Aneesh Reddy, co-founder of Capillary Technologies, which provides customer management solutions to retailers, said 90 out of the 320-odd employees in the firm are IITians.
IITians in top 10 list of US startup founders - The Times of India
