Cornell Startup Exits
Historical list of Cornell-founded startups that were acquired or went public.
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2023IPO Better.comFounded by Vishal Garg '00Digital mortgage lender founded 2014 by Cornell alum Vishal Garg. Went public via SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp.~$7.7B deal value
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2019IPO LyftFounded by John Zimmer '06, Logan GreenRide-share platform co-founded by Cornell Hotel School alum John Zimmer with Logan Green.~$2.3B raised
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2014IPO WayfairFounded by Niraj Shah '95, Steve Conine '95Online home goods retailer founded as CSN Stores in 2002 by two Cornell Engineering classmates; rebranded Wayfair 2011.~$300M raised
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2012IPO WorkdayFounded by Dave Duffield '62, MBA '64, Aneel BhusriCloud HR and financials platform co-founded by Dave Duffield after the Oracle/PeopleSoft acquisition.~$637M raised
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2010Acquired PalmFounded by Jeff Hawkins '79Pioneering handheld computing company founded 1992 by Cornell EE alum Jeff Hawkins. Acquired by HP in 2010.$1.2B
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2005Acquired PeopleSoftFounded by Dave Duffield '62, MBA '64HR/enterprise software pioneer founded 1987 by Cornell EE/MBA alum Dave Duffield. Acquired by Oracle after a contested takeover.$10.3B
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2003Acquired HandspringFounded by Jeff Hawkins '79PDA/smartphone maker (Treo) founded 1998 by Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan. Merged back into Palm.~$192M
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1998Acquired ViawebFounded by Robert Tappan MorrisFirst widely used web application (online stores); became Yahoo Store. Co-founded by former Cornell CS grad student Robert Morris with Paul Graham.~$49M
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1991Founded by Leonard Schleifer '73Biotech founded by Cornell biology alum Leonard Schleifer with George Yancopoulos in 1988.