Poets&QuantsTM Releases Top 100 MBA Startups of 2019

Comprehensive list of the top ventures incubated while in business school

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Feb 28, 2019, 07:11 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Poets&Quants, the definitive online publication for business education news, has released its annual list of the Top 100 MBA Startups.

The list requires two main criteria for inclusion. Each startup must have a founding or launch date between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2018. Additionally, they must have at least one founder or co-founder who graduated with an MBA during that same period. Based on these simple criteria, the Poets&Quants editorial team searches the Internet and solicits school nominations of recent startups from their respective schools. These startups are then evaluated based on the amount of funding they have received in the past five years.

This year's first-place honor went to Branch, a mobile linking platform started by Stanford MBAs. Topping the list with a staggering $242.10 million in venture backing, Branch eclipsed the 2018 top startup's haul of $193.9 million. Second-place startup Plenty raised $226 million and third-place Rivigo raised $16.2 million, moving up one spot this year.

To make the 2019 list, it took a minimum of $5 million in funding.

"Entrepreneurship continues to be a popular option among MBA students at elite B-schools. Stanford has more than 60 courses that have an entrepreneurship and innovation component," says John A. Byrne, founder and editor-in-chief of Poets&Quants. "At the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, about 25% of elective courses offered in the full-time MBA program have an entrepreneurial focus. We have seen the competition on this list grow exponentially since we first started it in 2013."

Visit Top 100 MBA Startups to learn more about the Top 100 Startups of 2019.

About Poets&Quants:

Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including: consolidated B-school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories and events, empowering our community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA.

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SOURCE Poets&Quants