The 2025 World’s Best MBA Programs For Entrepreneurship

EDHEC’S ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM

EDHEC’s Global MBA is a 10-month program at the university’s Nice campus in southern France. Its MBA Class of 2024 had 78 graduates from 29 countries.

This June, EDHEC released Generations 2050, its strategic plan through 2028, doubling down sustainability and impact while emphasizing net positive business models – those that improve the communities they serve.

That philosophy extends to new startups. It is also central to EDHEC’s entire entrepreneurial ecosystem spanning three campuses and delivering more than 3,000 hours of education per year. Highlights of that ecosystem, available to EDHEC MBAs, are listed below.

• Generations Powered by EDHEC is working to build a €40 million investment fund in partnership with Ring Capital – specifically for socially and environmentally responsible startups along with research and educational programs led by the EDHEC Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship.
• Its “responsible innovation accelerator,” EDHEC Entrepreneurs, supports more than 70 startups and 300 students per year across its three campus incubators: the Jean Arnault Campus in Lille, STATION F in Paris, and TechForward in Nice.
• EDHEC is the second largest partner program at STATION F with 110 work stations. MBAs in these incubators can book one-on-one consultations with over 340 industry experts in product development, marketing, legal affairs, AI, sales, and more. Experts include Georges Lahoud, former CFO of Coca-Cola; Arthur Dagard, founder of Futurz; and Claire Denniston, founder of Oulala!
• In 2023, EDHEC Entrepreneurs developed and released its open and free Responsible Entrepreneurship by Design (RED) methodology, embedding ethical considerations from the start within startups and new ventures. More than 1,000 startups across Europe have downloaded the methodology.

EDHEC’s ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRACK

EDHEC’s Global MBA created one of the first specialized entrepreneurship tracks. Last year, it was the most popular track in the program with 27% of the class enrolled and 13% of them starting their own businesses. Another 10% joined startups after the MBA.

“We also see corporate jobs seeking entrepreneurial skills like innovation, ideation, agile leadership, business intelligence, and AI, all of which can be developed quickly in the startup world,” Richez says.

Track MBAs focus on their own ventures throughout the program which ends with a pitch session in front of real business angels at TechForward. The best startups are invited to apply for either the TechForward Incubator in the Sophia Antipolis technology hub in Nice or the Station F Incubator program in Paris.

They also get three hours of 1-on-1 entrepreneurship career coaching with Edgardo da Fonseca, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, who also follows some ventures through the early stages. For their final capstone, MBAs can choose to write a business plan for their own venture or work on a consulting project with a startup or scaleup. The career center organizes job shadowing and entrepreneurship treks to Dublin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, and Paris.

And, as part of its partnership with EDHEC’s Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship, MBAs have access to a vast network of alumni, professional mentors, and experts in residence. In our 2025 ranking, EDHEC reported it has 347 entrepreneurs-in-residence available to help MBAs with a business plan, provide individual coaching, or support an MBA entrepreneur post-graduation. Each MBA startup is matched with a mentor for six months, but many continue their involvement well beyond, some even becoming startup business angels, says Richez.

Also in our 2025 ranking, EDHEC reported that 55% of its MBA electives focus on entrepreneurship or innovation. Among the most popular is Innovating New Products and Services, led by Franck Debane, a French-American entrepreneur and author. This course takes students through the process of ideation and design thinking, lean startup methodologies, and ends in business and revenue model design. MBAs get hands-on coaching as they refine their ideas into actionable business plans.

Another standout is Building a Scalable Business Model, taught by Olga Kokshagina, co-founder of the startup Ninti. This course focuses on lean analytics and metrics, guiding students through the complexities of innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. It lays the groundwork for effective pitching.

MBAs can also study the Berlin ecosystem with site visits to early-stage startups, scale-ups, and success stories like Hello Fresh and Zalando. The trip includes sessions with top executives and VC firms, consultants, entrepreneur pitch sessions, and even a look at corporate entrepreneurship and innovation.

 

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT ASU CAREY

ASU Carey jumped four spots from last year’s ranking to snag the No. 2 spot. Carey’s full-time MBA program is STEM-designated, and it had 59 graduates in the Class of 2024. It offers eight concentrations, including one in entrepreneurship where students can choose from electives such as Lean Launch, Corporate Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Finance.

“We teach an entrepreneurial mindset that creates entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs,” says Hitendra Chaturvedi, co-director of the Carey’s MS in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“We focus on small business as part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, not just tech start-ups, unlike other places. We partner with design and engineering schools to build prototypes and Minimum Value Product. We bring internships and capstone with real start-ups and small businesses, and we have faculty who have ‘been there and done that.’ The entrepreneurial mindset is weaved into every MBA course we teach.”

Through ASU Carey’s SMB Lab, MBAs work with small and medium-sized businesses to help solve real business problems or find resources to start and grow their own SMB.

Housed in one of the biggest universities in the United States, Carey MBAs compete with other program students for the largest pool of award money in our ranking – some $1.46 million. That includes Venture Devils Demo Day which awards $300,000 in prize money each semester for ventures founded by ASU students. The Innovation Open for hard-tech startups awards nearly $400,000 while Carey’s Center for Entrepreneurship and New Business Design offers $65,000. And, Changemaker at ASU awards nearly $390,000 in both project and seed-funding to the most promising, impact-driven student ideas.

Perhaps more important for Carey’s entrepreneurial MBAs is the mentorship they get in their programs. ASU Carey MBAs spent more time actively engaged with mentors than any other school in our ranking. As part of the program, each full-time student spends between 9 and 12 one-on-one hours with their mentor each year.

Carey also reported 96 entrepreneurs-in-residence, or 1.63 per graduating MBA for the class of 2024. That was the second-highest ratio in the category.

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