Founded in 2005 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell and Robert Morris as an experiment: fund many startups at once with tiny checks and intensive mentorship. The "Summer Founders Program" became the template for every startup accelerator since.
Batch accelerator investing at extreme scale: hundreds of companies per batch on identical terms, culminating in Demo Day; follow-on via later-stage funds.
Sector-agnostic; historically strong in developer tools, B2B SaaS, fintech, AI
Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Coinbase, DoorDash, Reddit, Instacart, Twitch
Airbnb IPO, Dropbox IPO, Coinbase direct listing, DoorDash IPO, Reddit IPO, Twitch ($970M to Amazon)
The first 2005 batch paid founders $6K per person for the summer; YC alumni companies are now collectively valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
| Company | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| Legora LegalTech | 2 rounds | $750M |
| Supabase DevTools | 1 round | $500M |
| Razorpay Fintech | 2 rounds | $475M |
| Zepto E-Commerce | 2 rounds, 1 led | $260M |
| Science Healthtech | 1 round | $230M |
| Zip SaaS B2B | 1 round | $190M |
| Starcloud SpaceTech | 1 round | $170M |
| Deel HR Tech | 1 round, 1 led | $156M |
| Deepgram AI | 1 round | $130M |
| Juicebox HR Tech | 2 rounds | $110M |
| Canary Technologies SaaS B2B | 2 rounds | $110M |
| Exa AI | 2 rounds | $107M |
| Heart Aerospace Mobility | 1 round | $107M |
| Tranch Fintech | 2 rounds | $104.4M |
| Kapital Fintech | 1 round | $100M |
| Nourish Healthtech | 1 round | $100M |
| Emergent DevTools | 2 rounds | $93M |
| Encord DevTools | 2 rounds | $90M |
| Moonvalley AI | 1 round | $84M |
| Speak edtech | 1 round | $78M |
| Model ML Fintech | 1 round | $75M |
| Hubble Network SpaceTech | 1 round | $70M |
| Giga AI | 1 round | $61M |
| Cortex DevTools | 1 round | $60M |
| Pelago Healthtech | 1 round | $58M |
| Let's Do This Marketplace | 1 round | $56M |
| Iron Ox AgriTech | 1 round | $53M |
| voize Healthtech | 2 rounds, 1 led | $50M |
| Gumloop SaaS B2B | 1 round | $50M |
| David AI AI | 1 round | $50M |
| MarqVision SaaS B2B | 1 round | $48M |
| CaptivateIQ SaaS B2B | 1 round | $46M |
| Nova Credit Fintech | 1 round | $45M |
| HappyRobot Logistics | 1 round | $44M |
| Conta Simples Fintech | 1 round | $41.5M |
| Solve Intelligence LegalTech | 1 round | $40M |
| Motion SaaS B2B | 1 round | $38M |
| Orange Health healthtech | 2 rounds | $37M |
| Minimal AI | 1 round, 1 led | $36M |
| Leya legal_tech | 2 rounds | $35.5M |
| Cashfree Fintech | 1 round | $35.3M |
| Numeral Fintech | 1 round | $35M |
| Glimpse | 1 round | $35M |
| Oneleet Cybersecurity | 1 round | $33M |
| SafeBase Cybersecurity | 1 round | $33M |
| Finary Fintech | 2 rounds | $31.2M |
| ARC ai_ml | 2 rounds | $31M |
| PermitFlow Other | 1 round | $31M |
| Groww Fintech | 1 round, 1 led | $30M |
| AfterQuery AI | 1 round | $30M |
| Tenderd logistics | 1 round | $30M |
| Raycast DevTools | 1 round | $30M |
| Collectly Healthtech | 1 round | $29M |
| Nanonets AI | 1 round | $29M |
| Lucis Healthtech | 2 rounds | $28.5M |
| Reshape Biotech Biotech | 2 rounds | $28.1M |
| FurtherAI InsurTech | 1 round | $25M |
| Solidroad SaaS B2B | 1 round | $25M |
| Kombo DevTools | 1 round | $25M |
| Trela Marketplace | 1 round | $25M |