Top University Investing VCs Include Venrock, DFJ, Kleiner, Bessemer and Accel

Not surprisingly, Stanford University alumni are the most likely to attract venture funding for their startups. But Harvard University and New York University are seeing fast growth in deal making.

From the other side of the term sheet, the venture capitalists most likely to sign checks with university graduates (and some non-graduates) are Venrock, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners and Accel Partners.

This is according to the University Entrepreneurship Report by CB Insights, which tracked $12.6 billion of investments at six top U.S. universities over the past five years. In all, 559 deals were examined.

The universities were Stanford, Harvard, NYU, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT.

The study found Stanford to be the clear winner. Alumni raised $4.1 billion in 203 transactions from 2007 to 2011, more than three times the average of the other schools. Harvard came in a close second with Facebook included in the total. Without Facebook, the gap was significant. Its alumni raised $1.8 billion. Berkeley was next on the list with $1.3 billion going to student created startups.

The venture capitalists with the most deals include Venrock, with 31 deals; Draper Fisher Jurvetson, also with 31; Kleiner, with 28; Bessemer, with 22; and Accel, with 21.

Kleiner, DFJ and InterWest Partners were most active at Stanford, Accel and Google Ventures at Harvard, and Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital at NYU. General Catalyst and Highland Capital were the most active MIT investors, and Bessemer and MentorTech rose to the top of the class at the University of Pennsylvania.

Technology and Internet startups soaked up a sizeable share of the funding at most of the schools, but healthcare also attracted money. Harvard and NYU saw the fastest growth in activity while the deal total fell at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. Stanford’s deal total rose 11% over the five-year period.

Chart above from CB Insight’s University Entrepreneurship Report.