Y Combinator

Y Combinator funds technology startups and helps founders develop products, find users and raise capital. Its three-month accelerator runs four times a year, combining partner office hours with launch support and investor introductions through Demo Day. Bookface connects founders for advice and introductions, while Work at a Startup helps companies recruit. For AI startups, its partnership with Together AI provides a dedicated GPU cluster for training and inference, with short-term compute access and self-service provisioning and billing.

YC’s founders are Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell; Garry Tan is its current president and CEO. Beyond its batch program, YC developed the SAFE, created by Carolynn Levy in 2013. This financing contract gives investors rights to future equity and converts into shares during a priced funding round, without interest or a maturity date. Its free Send a SAFE tool lets companies generate, sign and send these agreements, including through AI agents.

As of August 2026, YC reported funding more than 5,000 startups since 2005 and a community exceeding 7,000 founders, with more than a dozen alumni companies public. Its standard investment is $500,000 per company: $125,000 for 7% on a post-money SAFE, plus $375,000 through an uncapped SAFE with a most-favored-nation provision.