Though the country has a handful of companies in the unicorn club, the IITs alumni have been creating successful ventures outside India over many years. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have, over the years, been churning out engineers who have not only secured jobs in some of the best companies in the world but also bagged top positions. However, of late, the institutions have been getting increasingly known as the unicorn factories, presenting the world with a horde of successful entrepreneurs.  

According to an analysis released by a British software firm, Sage, IITs have become one of the top five institutions in the world to have churned out founders of unicorns—the privately-held startups valued at $1 billion or more.

IITs feature alongside some of the best institutions in the US such as Stanford University, Harvard University, University of California and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

IITs stand at fourth position in the list of 15 best universities across the world, boasting of unicorn founders as their alumni. In fact, if there’s one thing that’s common in some of the Indian unicorn founders, it’s their alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology.

The founders or cofounders of the Indian billion dollar tech startups are from IITs. Though the country has a handful of companies in the unicorn club, the IITs alumni have been creating successful ventures outside India over many years.

The report also shows that Stanford University tops the list, with over 50 unicorn founders as its alumni. The other institutions are Pennsylvania University of Oxford, Tel Aviv University, Cornell University, University of Southern California, University of Waterloo, INSEAD, WHU.