Y Combinator to invest $500K each in 70 AI start-ups
What's the story
Y Combinator (YC), widely recognized as one of the world's most influential start-up accelerators, has announced its Spring 2025 batch. The new cohort includes a whopping 70 start-ups working on agentic artificial intelligence (AI). Each of these innovative companies will receive an investment of $500,000 from YC as part of the three-month accelerator program.
Leadership change
YC managing partner transitions to partner emeritus role
In a related development, Dalton Caldwell, the managing partner at YC, has transitioned to the role of partner emeritus. With over 12 years of experience and involvement in guiding 25 batches and over a thousand start-ups through YC's application process, Caldwell was instrumental in the accelerator's operations. He is now co-founding Standard Capital, an AI-native Series A firm.
Promotions
Partners Jon Xu and Andrew Miklas promoted to general partners
In May, visiting partners Jon Xu and Andrew Miklas were promoted to general partners at YC. They will now work closely with founders across multiple batches in the start-up accelerator program. This comes after Michael Seibel, a longtime group partner at YC, also transitioned to a partner emeritus role after more than 12 years of service.
Start-ups spotlight
Cohesive, Docket, and Daxa are some notable AI start-ups
Among the notable agentic AI start-ups in the latest YC batch are Cohesive, Docket, and Daxa. Cohesive is an agentic CRM for blue-collar businesses, while Docket is an AI agent for web testing. Daxa is an AI-powered tool that monitors user behavior and feedback in real-time to proactively detect issues and uncover opportunities to improve product performance.
Additional innovations
Other innovative companies in YC's Spring 2025 batch
Other innovative start-ups in YC's Spring 2025 batch include PrismAI, VoiceOS, Kirana AI, Sava, Aegis, and Cascade Space. PrismAI is an AI that watches session replays and tells developers what to fix. VoiceOS builds voice AI agents for volume hiring. Kirana AI is developing an AI system that acts as a full-time store manager, while Sava is revolutionizing sheet metal manufacturing with robots. Cascade Space is developing a communications network for lunar and deep space exploration.
Ecosystem influence
YC has invested in over 5,000 companies since 2005
Since 2005, Y Combinator has invested in over 5,000 companies with a combined valuation of more than $800 billion. The firm recently accused Google of harming the US start-up ecosystem by making it harder for new companies to compete. In a filing in an ongoing antitrust case, YC called Google a "monopolist" that has "stunted" innovation by shutting out potential challengers.