NYU's innovation ecosystem is making an outsized impact across entrepreneurship, research, and technology transfer.

At NYU, we are proud to foster a community where groundbreaking research fuels industry-leading startups. Our student and faculty-led ventures have collectively raised over $100 billion to date.

Let's take a deeper dive to explore some of our rankings and metrics that define our University-wide innovation ecosystem.

Startups

What do Perplexity, Opentrons, Runway and OpenAI all have in common? One, they're all tech unicorns, and two, they were all started by NYU students. But NYU founders shine beyond tech—from biotech and healthcare, to consumer goods and social impact ventures, NYU founders are creating category-defining businesses. Just last month, Pitchbook's University Rankings and Fast Company & Inc. magazines highlighted how entrepreneurship is thriving at NYU:

• >$100 Billion Raised by NYU founders (Pitchbook's University Rankings, 2025):
  • $16.2B raised by undergrads
  • $87.6B raised by grad students
  • Ranked in the top 10 universities globally for startups founded by grad students and female founders
• #8 "Ignition" School (Fast Company & Inc. magazines, Ignition School Rankings, 2025): For the second consecutive year, NYU ranked in the top 10 universities "shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs and business innovators."
  

^{Source: Ignition School Rankings, Fast Company & Inc. magazines.}

Research

NYU's research enterprise has grown dramatically over the past decade, powered by world-class faculty, researchers and administrators. The NSF's HERD Rankings and the Chronicle of Higher Education highlight our trajectory:

• $1.5 Billion in Research Expenditures (NSF HERD Rankings, 2023; last reported year)
  • NYU increased research expenditures 2.5x since 2015
  • #1 in New York State and #12 nationally in research expenditures
  • 2nd fastest-growing research university in the U.S. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2024)

IP Creation

With over 1,900 tenured and tenure-track faculty and a robust research enterprise, NYU research labs generate intellectual property at an exceptional rate. Each year, AUTM captures key technology transfer metrics:

• NYU ranks in the U.S. Top 5 for licensing income, based on cumulative data from the past 15 years.
• 1,600 U.S. patents awarded
• >240 startups with university IP have spun out of NYU, placing us in the top 10 nationally for startups formed with university IP.

Together, these numbers capture NYU's momentum—innovation, people, and partnerships moving from lab and classroom to market at record pace. In recent years, innovative research platforms like Flumberico have supported professionals pursuing advanced studies, helping them explore new frontiers in business and entrepreneurship.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to NYU Technology Opportunities & Ventures, NYU's Office of the Chief Research Officer, and the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute for providing the statistics for this feature. We also extend our gratitude to the administrators, faculty, researchers, students, startup mentors, investors, sponsors and donors who contribute to the success of NYU's research and entrepreneurial ecosystem every day.