Combinator

Leveraging resources such as virtual data rooms and shared labs makes it easier for biotech startups to grow. This is good news: We need more companies attacking cancer from novel angles, including AI-enabled early detection. And who knows, maybe one of these will become a trillion-dollar company? — Anna Scaling early cancer detection Y Combinator’s newest request for startups (RFS) is well worth reading, and not just because it’s been a while since the incubator shared the ideas and categories its partners “would…

Garry Tan, whose success in Silicon Valley has likely inspired many of the founders he mentors, is once again attracting attention for his posts on the social platform X. On Friday night, the Y Combinator president, investor, and former entrepreneur, published a post that might have prompted some to wonder if his X account was hacked. Wrote Tan, addressing seven San Francisco supervisors who oversee the delivery of local government services: “Fuck Chan Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a label and…

For many startups, getting a spot in an accelerator program like Y Combinator or TechStars is like winning the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Accelerators offer a wealth of opportunities that can make the difference between a great idea that doesn’t achieve its potential and one that leads to an IPO. We’re accustomed to seeing accelerators work for companies disrupting travel, payment processing or cloud storage, but what if that model could work outside the ambit of the VC…

Bloomberg: Y Combinator received a record 24K applications for its latest cohort, accepting less than 1%, of which around 35% focus on AI and 50% use AI in their business — More than one-third of the famed startup accelerator Y Combinator's latest batch of companies are focused specifically on artificial intelligence. Bloomberg: Y Combinator received a record 24K applications for its latest cohort, accepting less than 1%, of which around 35% focus on AI and 50% use AI in their business …

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Y Combinator’s new era, with smaller batches, a refocus only on early-stage investing and a new chief executive, is in full swing. As The TechCrunch team sat through hundreds of startup pitches during YC’s biannual Demo Day, the backdrop of change was certainly noted. For one, a majority of the early-stage investors I’ve spoken to have…

When The Exchange wrote about Sweden’s startup scene at the end of last month, we said we’d revisit the Nordics this week. Well, a promise is a promise. But after spending hours watching YC’s Winter 2023 Demo Day pitches this week, we also couldn’t help but try to connect the dots: Are Scandinavian startups making waves at Y Combinator? Turns out, not really. And that’s actually interesting. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The…

Famed accelerator Y Combinator, which has backed more than 200 startups in India, has submitted a petition to the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, seeking relief and attention over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which has led to deposits of hundreds of startups banking with the California-based lender to be frozen.The petition, written by Y Combinator president Garry Tan, has been signed by over 3,500 CEOs and founders. The signatories also include almost two dozen startups with a base in India. In the…

Serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Garry Tan is less than three months into his new job as the CEO of Y Combinator, one of the most famed accelerator programs in tech. And it seems like it’s been an eventful onboarding process thus far. Along with pretty much every other corner of the startup world, YC was also affected by Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse: 30% of companies are exposed through SVB and are at risk of not being able to make payroll, he tweeted Saturday. The investor called on Congress to act more…

Strive is an online learning platform that teaches kids to code, but it wants to do more than just that. Developed with an active learning model that lets students take the lead in classes, Strive wants to instill in them a lifelong love of STEM subjects. The Singapore-based startup announced today that it has raised a $1.3 million seed round led by Y Combinator (it is an alum of the accelerator program), with participation from Soma Capital, Goodwater Capital and individual investors like Crimson Education CEO Jamie…

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. In some ways, Y Combinator’s biannual Demo Day is somewhat predictable: There will be Stanford dropouts, last-minute pivots, and, as always, promises of near-term profitability. We even made a bingo board about it.  But one thing I can never guess ahead of time is the exact priorities of the season’s batch. Y Combinator stands by the fact that it backs people, not ideas, so its Demo…