What investors actually fund

What Y Combinator funds

Name: What Y Combinator funds: companies by batch, sector and AI share
Creator: Questd

For founders looking for their next idea and investors sizing up a space: what YC is backing now, what’s cooling, where the gaps are, and how each sector has played out. Compare it with what YC says it wants.

Updated 2026-10-24 · refreshed monthly Download the numbers (CSV)Methodology

Companies listed: 6,332
Latest batch (F26): 173
AI share, F26: 70.8%
Fastest-rising theme: Robotics

How much of each YC batch is AI

Share of each batch's tagged companies that YC itself tagged as AI, since 2015.

AI share of tagged companiesTagging in progress, not a final value

Winter 2026 (28.4% tagged), Spring 2026 (31.6% tagged): YC has tagged fewer than 70% of these companies so far, so the dashed bar is only an early read, not a final share.

For founders and investors

Breakout themes

YC's own topic tags whose share grew most in the last four fully tagged batches (S25–F26) compared with the four before (S24–X25).

Rising

Cooling

Barely existed two years ago

Companies in the last four batches vs the four before.

For founders and investors

Trend any idea

Type a word and see how many YC companies per batch mention it in their one-liner, since 2015.

72 YC companies mention “voice” in their one-liner since 2015. Last four batches: 11 (1.4% of companies), vs 20 (3.2%) in the four before. Cooling.

Latest matches

antimattr F26 · voice-first hardware interface for human-agent interaction
Audora F26 · Audiobooks where every character has their own voice.
DeepMark F26 · A live watermark inside AI voice that survives phone calls
Sona8 F26 · Voice agents survey employees to map, improve & automate workflows
Dialogus S26 · voice AI agents that learn how your company actually works
Speko S26 · OpenRouter for Voice AI: one API, every call on the best speech model

For founders

Crowded or open?

YC companies per sector from batches since 2025, compared with 2023–2024. 8 sectors are crowded and 19 are open.

Sector	Signal	Since 2025	2023–24
Engineering, Product and Design	Crowded	159 –	175
Infrastructure	Crowded	123 ▲	57
Productivity	Crowded	43 ▲	33
Marketing	Active	27 ▲	18
Manufacturing and Robotics	Crowded	98 ▲	15
Operations	Crowded	35 –	41
Healthcare IT	Active	23 ▼	32
Supply Chain and Logistics	Crowded	31 ▲	26
Finance and Accounting	Crowded	30 –	30
Sales	Active	24 ▼	36
Retail	Open	4 ▼	15
Analytics	Active	24 –	26

For founders

What YC asked for vs what it funded

Each recent Request for Startups next to how many YC companies since 2025 describe something similar. Few matches plus an open ask is a gap worth a look. Matching is by keywords, so treat counts as approximate.

AI-Powered Vocational Training for the Physical Infrastructure Workforce
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 0 similar YC companies since 2025 (0 in the four years before)
Gap
No YC company since 2025 describes this yet.
Proving You're Human
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 0 similar YC companies since 2025 (6 in the four years before)
Gap
No YC company since 2025 describes this yet.
A Cloud for Small Software
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 1 similar YC companies since 2025 (3 in the four years before)
Gap
Caution S26: Hosting platform for software you can't afford to have hacked
Cursor for Product Managers
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 1 similar YC companies since 2025 (5 in the four years before)
Gap
LightSprint X26: Software factory for product teams
AI for the Aging Population
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 2 similar YC companies since 2025 (4 in the four years before)
Gap
Rhem Labs F26: Home care technology for aging parents and their families · Cova S26: Financial infrastructure for family caregiving
AI Guidance for Physical Work
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 2 similar YC companies since 2025 (3 in the four years before)
Gap
Pairio X26: AI mobile app that helps factory technicians fix broken machines · Cohesive X25: The agentic CRM for blue-collar services
Compute at Sea
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 2 similar YC companies since 2025 (1 in the four years before)
Gap
Atomarine S26: Floating nuclear powered data centers at sea. · DAIVIN! W26: Tankless Dive Gear - Breath Autonomy at Sea, Land & Space
Self-Maintaining APIs
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 2 similar YC companies since 2025 (3 in the four years before)
Gap
Asteroid W25: The integration layer for healthcare: EHRs, payer portals & more · ReJot W25: We turn complex API integrations into drop‑in full‑stack libraries
The Best Time to Build in Crypto
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 2 similar YC companies since 2025 (24 in the four years before)
Gap
Fire Wallet F26: Fire Wallet is a privacy-first crypto wallet designed to just work,… · Sequence Markets W26: Low-latency execution across crypto, prediction, and tokenized assets
AI-Native Hedge Funds
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 4 similar YC companies since 2025 (2 in the four years before)
Some
Standard Signal X26: Hedge fund where AI researches and executes every trade end-to-end · Lotas S25: AI for quantitative trading
Software-Defined Metal Mills
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 4 similar YC companies since 2025 (6 in the four years before)
Some
Ultrasonium S26: Metal manufacturing, faster, cheaper, and more versatile. · Forge Robotics F25: A robotics intelligence system for metal fabrication
Stablecoin Financial Services
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 4 similar YC companies since 2025 (4 in the four years before)
Some
SpotPay W26: Stablecoin Global Bank Account · BlindPay W25: Stablecoin API for global payments
The Primer: An AI Tutor for Every Child
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 6 similar YC companies since 2025 (12 in the four years before)
Some
Aleph Lab F25: AI language buddy in the games kids love · Tegore X25: Your new AI-powered math tutor.
AI Tools for Government at Scale
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 8 similar YC companies since 2025 (10 in the four years before)
Some
Particularity F26: Building the tech stack for government regulators · Capto S26: Build something the government wants
AI-Native Agencies: Software Margins on Services
YC asked in Spring 2026 · 9 similar YC companies since 2025 (7 in the four years before)
Some
Adside.ai F26: AI agency that manages paid ads on Meta, Google, LinkedIn, etc. · ClaimKit F26: AI-native professional services agency
AI-Native Compliance Infrastructure
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 16 similar YC companies since 2025 (32 in the four years before)
Busy
Hickory & Company F26: Hickory offers agentic compliance and BSA for banks and fintechs · Spine F26: We run benefits, payroll & compliance for startups, for free
New Operating Systems for the Physical World
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 32 similar YC companies since 2025 (37 in the four years before)
Busy
Hemlock F26: Force + contact dynamics collected at scale for training physical AI. · Preload F26: Sensorimotor context for physical AI
The Future of American Defense
YC asked in Fall 2026 · 32 similar YC companies since 2025 (8 in the four years before)
Busy
ChemPilot.ai F26: Discover novel defense related materials/molecules. · Kairox Systems F26: Autonomous drones that fly and swim

For investors

How each sector played out

The status YC lists for companies from batches up to 2021, so young companies don't skew it. Statuses can lag reality.

Acquired
Public
Active
Inactive

Sort by

Companies from batches up to 2021, by the status YC lists today. Hover or tap a bar for counts.

For investors and founders

Where YC founders are based

12.9% of Fall 2026 companies are based outside the US. San Francisco is home to 70.1% of companies since 2025.

Share of each batch based outside the US

Top cities

San Francisco70.1%
New York City10.2%
London3.4%
Los Angeles2.1%
Paris1.3%
Boston1%

For investors

Compare two sectors

Share of each YC batch, 2018 onwards.

Sector: Manufacturing and Robotics; Engineering, Product and Design
Companies, all time: 164; 632
Since 2025: 98 · Crowded; 159 · Crowded
2023–24: 15; 175
AI share (tagged): 49%; 56%
Acquired or public (older batches): 13%; 30%
Listed as inactive (older batches): 28%; 31%
Notable companies: Rigetti Computing; Optimizely, PagerDuty, Algolia

Top sectors, batch by batch

Pick a batch to see where its companies cluster.

Top sectors in Fall 2026 (173 companies)

Every YC batch

YC startups by sector

Engineering, Product and Design · 632 Infrastructure · 337 Productivity · 230 Marketing · 174 Manufacturing and Robotics · 164 Operations · 154 Healthcare IT · 143 Supply Chain and Logistics · 141 Finance and Accounting · 139 Sales · 136 Retail · 125 Analytics · 125 Security · 124 Home and Personal · 123 Payments · 121 Consumer Health and Wellness · 119 Content · 118 Social · 110 Food and Beverage · 94 Consumer Finance · 89 Housing and Real Estate · 86 Human Resources · 83 Recruiting and Talent · 76 Credit and Lending · 75 Healthcare Services · 74 Insurance · 74 Banking and Exchange · 73 Gaming · 71 Aviation and Space · 67 Therapeutics · 65 Legal · 61 Drug Discovery and Delivery · 59 Diagnostics · 58 Asset Management · 58 Energy · 55 Climate · 53 Construction · 52 Consumer Electronics · 50 Apparel and Cosmetics · 49 Medical Devices · 44 Travel, Leisure and Tourism · 36 Industrial Bio · 34 Agriculture · 32 Defense · 31 Transportation Services · 27 Office Management · 25

Methodology

Every number here is a count of companies in YC’s public directory. Nothing is estimated, and we never show dollar amounts: most round sizes are not published.

Source and freshness: Y Combinator's public company directory (ycombinator.com/companies), read through the open-source yc-oss mirror. We keep listing facts only: name, one-liner, batch, YC’s sector and tags, team size, status and location. Data as of 2026-10-24, refreshed monthly. Each refresh is reviewed by a person before it goes live. Batches with fewer than 20 listed companies are left out. YC adds companies as they launch, so recent batches can still grow.
AI share: A company counts as AI if YC tagged it with one of: AI, Generative AI, Machine Learning, AI Assistant, Computer Vision, AIOps, Conversational AI, Deep Learning, AI-Enhanced Learning, AI-powered Drug Discovery, NLP, Swarm AI. The share is out of the companies YC has tagged. YC tags new batches late, so a batch with fewer than 70% of its companies tagged gets no AI share rather than a misleadingly low one.
Breakout themes: Themes are YC’s own tags. We compare each tag’s share of tagged companies in the last four batches that are at least 70% tagged with the four before them. A tag needs 15+ companies in the recent window to rank. “Barely existed two years ago” means 8+ recent companies and at least three times the count in the earlier window. Broad tags (B2B, B2C, SaaS, Consumer, Enterprise, Enterprise Software, AI, Generative AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning) are left out because they describe a business model, not a theme.
Trend any idea: Counts companies whose one-liner contains a word starting with what you type (so “agent” also finds “agents”), per batch since 2015. “Rising” means the share of companies in the last four batches is at least 25% higher than in the four before; “cooling” means at least 20% lower. With fewer than 8 matches across both windows we don’t call a trend. One-liners are short, so treat this as a signal, not a census.
Sectors, and crowded or open: Sectors are YC’s sub-industry labels. Companies YC labelled only broadly (for example “B2B”) count in totals but not in sector rankings. A sector is Crowded with 30+ YC companies from batches since 2025, Active with 10–29, and Open below 10. The arrow compares that count with 2023–2024 (up or down by more than 15%). “Open” describes YC’s portfolio only, not the whole market.
What YC asked for vs what it funded: For each recent Request for Startups, we search YC one-liners for a short, reviewed list of keywords that describe the ask, and count matches from batches since 2025. Gap means 3 or fewer matches, Some up to 10, and Busy more than that. Keyword matching is approximate: it misses companies that describe the same idea in other words, and asks too broad to match by keywords are left out.
How each sector played out: The status YC lists today (Active, Acquired, Public or Inactive) for companies from batches up to 2021, so companies are at least five years old. A sector needs 30+ such companies to appear. Statuses are self-reported and can lag reality, so we say “listed as inactive”, not “failed”. This shows how often a company was acquired or went public, not how much anyone made.
Where founders are based: The first location a company lists. “Remote” and blank locations are left out of the shares. Cities are shares of companies with a known city in those years.
Download: Every number on these pages is in the CSV download. You’re welcome to cite it; please link to this page.

Frequently asked questions

What kind of startups does Y Combinator fund?

Across the last four batches, the largest sectors by YC's own labels are Manufacturing and Robotics, Engineering, Product and Design, Infrastructure. The fastest-growing are Infrastructure, Manufacturing and Robotics, Defense. About 51% of all YC companies are labelled B2B.

What is trending at Y Combinator right now?

By YC's own tags, the fastest-rising themes in the last four fully tagged batches (S25–F26) are Robotics (4.4% → 9.6% of companies), Hardware (4.2% → 7.9% of companies), Hard Tech (4.4% → 7.1% of companies), Infrastructure (6.7% → 8.6% of companies). Cooling: Developer Tools, AI Assistant, Fintech.

Which startup sectors are crowded at YC, and which are open?

Counting YC companies from batches since 2025, the most crowded sectors are Engineering, Product and Design (159), Infrastructure (123), Productivity (43). 19 sectors have fewer than 10, including Retail, Home and Personal, Payments. "Open" describes YC's portfolio only, not the whole market.

What percentage of YC startups are AI?

70.8% of the Fall 2026 companies YC has tagged carry an AI tag (YC's own tags such as "AI", "Generative AI" and "Machine Learning"). It was 21.3% in Winter 2018 and first passed 50% in Winter 2023.

How many companies has Y Combinator funded?

YC's public directory lists 6,332 companies across 42 batches with 20 or more companies. The latest, Fall 2026, lists 173 so far.

How much does Y Combinator invest?

YC’s standard deal is $500,000: $125,000 for 7% of the company plus $375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with a most-favoured-nation clause. Later seed rounds are often undisclosed, so this page shows counts and shares, not dollar totals.

Looking for what to build next?

See the problems YC has asked founders to solve, and the open problems on Questd that investors want solved.

YC Requests for Startups Problems worth solving Apply to YC: deal and deadlines