Trinity named best European university for producing entrepreneurs

232 alumni entrepreneurs raise $3.26bn capital over last 13 years

Trinity has the highest number of graduates founding venture-backed companies of all universities in Europe over the last 13 years, according to research published by Pitchbook.

Trinity is the only European university in the Top 50 of Pitchbook’s recent Universities Report, rising two places since last year to rank 46th globally. The global ranking of venture-backed entrepreneurs produced from undergraduate courses reflects the 232 alumni entrepreneurs produced by College between 2006 and 2018, who have cumulatively raised capital of around $3.26bn.

Trinity graduates such as Intercom founders Eoghan McCabe and Ciaran Lee are an example of the type of entrepreneurs captured in Pitchbook’s analysis. Their customer engagement platform, Intercom, has recently been valued at over $1.275bn.

Similarly, Trinity alum Dr. Nora Khaldi’s company, Nuritas, raised $20m in March. Nuritas is an artificial intelligence and genomics platform that may reap potentially groundbreaking health benefits by utilising natural bioactive peptides.

Trinity’s Chief Innovation and Enterprise Office Dr Diarmuid O’Brien explained that College has “placed innovation and entrepreneurship at the heart of its strategy”. He outlined that programmes like Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, show College’s desire to maintain their role as “global leader” in producing, what they claim to be, the best students and the best entrepreneurs.

Trinity graduates such as Intercom founders Eoghan McCabe and Ciaran Lee are an example of the type of entrepreneurs captured in Pitchbook’s analysis. Their customer engagement platform, Intercom, has recently been valued at over $1.275bn.

The roots of such success may be traced back to College’s entrepreneurship training programmes. One such programme, Blackstone Launchpad, provides would-be student entrepreneurs with support from mentors with experience in various industries.

Its sister accelerator programme, Launchbox, provides students in the infancy of their business or social enterprise with the opportunity to obtain funding and access to alumni, mentors and investors. Last week, charity app Change Donations won first place at the Launchbox 2018 final, securing three months at innovation hub Dogpatch Labs in Dublin and a trip to an international accelerator programme in New York.

Pitchbook, a leading research firm for Private Equity and Venture Capital, publishes its Universities Report annually. The report details the universities which have produced the most founders in the venture landscape.