List of companies founded by University of Pennsylvania alumni
Company Type Category Year founded Total founders Founder/co-founder from UPenn
Alta Communications Private Private equity 1996 2 Co-founder William P. Egan ( M.B.A . )
AQR Capital Private Investment management 1998 4 Co-founder Cliff Asness ( B.S . )
BlackRock Public Investment management 1988 8 Co-founder Robert S. Kapito ( B.S . )
Cisco Systems , Inc Public Hardware 1984 2 Co-founder Leonard Bosack ( B.S . )
Cycorp Private Artificial intelligence 1994 1 Doug Lenat ( B.A. , M.S . )
JibJab Private Entertainment studio 1999 2 Co-founder Gregg Spiridellis ( M.B.A . )
Leonard Green & Partners Private Private equity 1989 1 Leonard I . Green ( M.B.A . )
Och-Ziff Capital Management Public Hedge fund 1994 1 Daniel Och ( B.S . )
Oxygen Media ( NASDAQ : CMCSA ) TV channel 1998 5 Co-founder Geraldine Laybourne ( M.S . )
Point72 Asset Management / S.A.C . Capital Advisors Private Hedge fund 1992 1 Steven A. Cohen ( B.S . )
QVC ( NASDAQ : QRTEA ) Home shopping 1986 1 Joseph Segel ( B.S . )
StubHub ( NASDAQ : EBAY ) Ticket exchange 2000 2 Co-founder Jeff Fluhr ( B.S . )
X.com - > PayPal - > Public ( merged ) Financial services 1999 ( X.com ) 1 ( X.com ) Elon Musk ( B.A . )
York Capital Management Private Investment management 1991 1 Jamie Dinan ( B.S . )
Timeline -- Year 1980 – 1999
This is a list of companies founded by University of Pennsylvania alumni, including attendees who enrolled in degree-programs at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) but did not eventually graduate. This list is not exhaustive, as it only includes notable companies of which the founding and development history is well recorded by reliable sources. In particular, subsidiaries are listed with their owners in parentheses. University of Pennsylvania is a highly entrepreneurial university and its alumni have founded a variety of companies. According to PitchBook, from 2006 to 2017, UPenn produced 788 company founders as alumni or current students, creating 712 companies, fifth most among all universities in the world. In this list, founders of a company which merged with other companies to form a new company are counted as founders of the new company. However, founders of a company which later dissolved into several successor companies are not counted as founders of those successor companies; this same rule applies to spin-off companies. Finally, a defunct company is a company that had stopped functioning completely (e.g., bankrupt) without dissolving, merging or being acquired.