Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private nonprofit research university operating 10 schools across two St. Louis campuses, serving students, healthcare patients, and a research commercialization ecosystem anchored by a $17 billion endowment and a bioscience startup hub.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1853
- HeadquartersSt Louis, United States
- Headcount5,001–10,000
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Washington University in St. Louis does
Washington University in St. Louis is a private nonprofit research university founded in 1853 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It operates 10 schools — Arts & Sciences, Brown School, Bursky School of Public Health (named in 2026 after a record $200M gift), McKelvey School of Engineering, Olin Business School, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, School of Continuing & Professional Studies, School of Law, School of Medicine, and the newly absorbed School of Pharmacy (formerly St. Louis College of Pharmacy, added February 2026) — across two primary campuses: the Danforth Campus (1 Brookings Drive) and the Medical Campus (660 S. Euclid Ave.). The university serves undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, healthcare patients through affiliated hospitals (Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital), and a broader research and innovation ecosystem anchored by the AI for Health Institute, Catalyst bioscience startup hub, and technology transfer office.
Its core technology platform is interdisciplinary academic and medical research spanning neuroscience (Alzheimer's blood tests, Parkinson's somato-cognitive action network), oncology (AI-assisted OCT imaging with 94% sensitivity), clean energy (platinum-free hydrogen fuel catalysts operating 1,000+ hours), biomanufacturing (metabolic noise optimization), and biological machines (engineered bacterial muscle tissue). Notable proprietary outputs include the PrecivityAD2 Alzheimer's blood test (commercialized via C2N Diagnostics, CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified), cellular immunotherapy reprogramming astrocytes to clear amyloid-beta plaques, and the 'ghost power coefficient' (γ) framework for multiprocessor power modeling. The university holds accreditations from the Higher Learning Commission (since 1913), Missouri DESE, and partner certifications including ISO 13485 via C2N.
Its business model is a hybrid of tuition and fees across degree programs, federal research grants (with the School of Medicine climbing toward No. 1 in NIH funding), clinical revenue from WashU Medicine, endowment investment returns on a $17B endowment (notably a SpaceX stake grown from ~$50M to >10% of the endowment), philanthropic giving (record $200M Bursky gift in May 2026), and commercialization through startup formation, licensing, and the Catalyst startup hub. WashU startup companies attracted a record $1.7B in private-sector investment over the past year as of January 2026, and the BioSTL global health innovation program has drawn 79 companies from 10 countries generating $750M in contracts since 2014. Five WashU Medicine startups (including Acera Surgical, Prognosia, Neurolutions) were acquired or merged to advance technologies toward patient commercialization.
Washington University in St. Louis firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Legal name
- Washington University in St. Louis
- Website
- https://washu.edu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1853
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 5,001–10,000 employees
- Short description
- Washington University in St. Louis is a private nonprofit research university operating 10 schools across two St. Louis campuses, serving students, healthcare patients, and a research commercialization ecosystem anchored by a $17 billion endowment and a bioscience startup hub.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Washington University in St. Louis industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Higher Education and Research
- NAICS
- Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (611310), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Hospitals (8060)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary) (EDAHABAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Schools of Public Health (EDAHAGAD), Business & Management Research Universities (EDAHABAE)
Keywords
Where Washington University in St. Louis is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- St Louis
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Washington University in St. Louis business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Washington University in St. Louis product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Washington University in St. Louis is a private nonprofit research university that delivers higher education across 10 schools offering bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degree programs, and conducts funded research in medicine, engineering, public health, business, and sciences. It also operates WashU Medicine, providing clinical care through affiliated hospitals, and runs the Catalyst bioscience startup hub to commercialize research. The university attracted $1.7 billion in private-sector investment into WashU startups over the past year.
Product overview
Washington University in St. Louis is an academic research institution, not a commercial product company. Its 'products' are primarily research technologies and scientific innovations developed by faculty and researchers across its schools. The university does not offer a unified commercial product portfolio; instead, it generates intellectual property and technologies through research across medicine, engineering, and the sciences, often transferring these through licensing to commercial entities. Research areas include AI-assisted medical imaging diagnostics, cellular immunotherapies for neurodegenerative diseases, clean energy catalysts, and biomanufacturing optimization.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- The Source: Official newsroom and publications platform for Washington University in St. Louis
- Bursky School of Public Health
- School of Medicine
- Olin Business School
- McKelvey School of Engineering
Products and services
- Undergraduate Degree Programs Bachelor's degree programs offered across multiple schools including Arts & Sciences, Olin Business School, McKelvey School of Engineering, and Sam Fox School, serving traditional undergraduate students pursuing four-year degrees.
- Graduate and Doctoral Degree Programs
Quantifiable outcome
- Record $1.7 billion in private-sector investment attracted by WashU startup companies over past year
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Washington University in St. Louis
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Washington University in St. Louis technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Washington University in St. Louis partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Carnegie Mellon University (OMEGA Project)coreMulti-university team led by Carnegie Mellon secured up to $39.3 million from ARPA-H to develop OMEGA wearable monitoring system for fetal assessment. Nine-member team includes Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, UPMC Magee Womens Hospital, University of Pittsburgh, University of Notre Dame, Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Photonic Sciences (Spain), and Tyndall National Institute (Ireland).
- UK NHS Health Innovation Networks / BioSTL GlobalcoreAgreement to establish St. Louis as gateway for NHS-affiliated digital health startups entering U.S. market. Connects UK innovators with St. Louis' $500 billion healthcare ecosystem for pilots, licensing, and commercial scaling. Program attracted 79 companies from 10 countries generating $750 million since 2014.
- Evon Labs HealthX CatalystminorWashU partnered with Evon Labs for HealthX Catalyst, a 12-week health-tech incubation program for 12 selected African founders. Partners include UNDP, OICL, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, and Brooks Insights.
- Galaxy Brain Scientific Inc.minorInternational study published in Nature involving WashU researchers identified somato-cognitive action network (SCAN) as core functional circuit underlying Parkinson's disease, enabled by Galaxy Brain Scientific's proprietary pBFS technology.
- NIH Human Virome Program ConsortiumcoreWashU collaborating with Broad Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Baylor College of Medicine, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on NIH $14.5 million grant to establish Human Virome Reference Dataset and standardized analysis toolkit.
- Virginia Tech / Varro Life SciencesminorVarro Life Sciences' biosensor technology for detecting airborne pathogens included in $40 million ARPA-H-funded team proposal led by Virginia Tech and Washington University to develop real-time air quality monitoring systems.
- C2N DiagnosticscoreC2N Diagnostics confirmed as anchor tenant at Catalyst: Powered by WashU, leasing 82,451 square feet for corporate headquarters by late 2026. Company commercialized the first clinical blood test for Alzheimer's disease (PrecivityAD2 test).
Scale indicators11 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Washington University in St. Louis competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Harvard University: Elite private research university with comparable scale, comprehensive school structure, large endowment, and top-ranked medical school. Harvard is the benchmark private multi-disciplinary research university against which WashU competes for faculty, students, and research prestige.
- Stanford University: Private research university with similar scale, top-tier medical school, and strong technology transfer/startup pipeline in Silicon Valley. Direct competitor for faculty and graduate students, and a benchmark for university-driven startup creation.
- Johns Hopkins University: Private research university with the nation's leading medical school by NIH funding and major research hospital system. Closest direct peer to WashU's medical-research and hospital-anchored model, and similarly named alongside WashU in federal funding exposure.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Private research university with major engineering school and a strong commercialization/startup culture. Comparable in STEM research output and prestige, and a benchmark for translating academic research into commercial ventures.
- Yale University: Elite private research university with similar endowment scale and disciplinary breadth including law, medicine, and public health. Grouped alongside WashU as facing federal funding pressure and construction pauses, reflecting shared exposure to research policy risk.
- Columbia University: Private research university with comparable endowment size, medical school, business school, and law school. Direct competitor for graduate students and faculty in the same disciplines WashU operates in.
- University of Chicago: Private research university with similar endowment scale, strong business and economics programs, and a comparable multi-disciplinary structure including medicine and public policy. Closely comparable in size and academic profile to WashU.
- Duke University: Private research university with similar endowment size and a top-tier medical school/health system. Direct competitor for medical research talent and applicants, and a like-for-like benchmark for medical-research-driven prestige.
- Northwestern University: Private research university with comparable endowment size, a top medical school, law school, and engineering school. Direct peer for graduate student recruitment and faculty hiring across most of WashU's schools.
- Vanderbilt University: Private research university with similar school structure, top medical school, and similar scale. Specifically named in WashU data alongside its chancellor for a co-commissioned report on humanities, indicating ongoing peer-level collaboration and direct competition in research and admissions.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights2 records
Customer concentration
Washington University in St. Louis social profiles
Digital presenceWashington University in St. Louis compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance5 records
Washington University in St. Louis financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Washington University in St. Louis leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
Washington University in St. Louis subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries3 records
Washington University in St. Louis funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors4 records
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Washington University in St. Louis M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments5 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Washington University in St. Louis
What does Washington University in St. Louis do?
Washington University in St. Louis is a private nonprofit research university that delivers higher education across 10 schools offering bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degree programs, and conducts funded research in medicine, engineering, public health, business, and sciences. It also operates WashU Medicine, providing clinical care through affiliated hospitals, and runs the Catalyst bioscience startup hub to commercialize research. The university attracted $1.7 billion in private-sector investment into WashU startups over the past year.
Is Washington University in St. Louis a public or private company?
Washington University in St. Louis is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Washington University in St. Louis founded?
Washington University in St. Louis was founded in 1853. It employs 5,001 to 10,000 people.
Where is Washington University in St. Louis based?
Washington University in St. Louis is headquartered in St Louis, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Washington University in St. Louis's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Harvard University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Duke University, Northwestern University and Vanderbilt University.
Does Washington University in St. Louis have an API?
No public API is recorded for Washington University in St. Louis.
What industry is Washington University in St. Louis in?
Washington University in St. Louis's product category is Higher Education and Research. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAHABAA, Comprehensive Doctoral Research Universities (Multi-Disciplinary), with a secondary code of EDAHAGAD, Schools of Public Health. Its NAICS code is 611310 and its SIC code is 8200.