Y Combinator 2026 Statistics (Updated September)

How many companies has Y Combinator funded

1. 1

   Y Combinator says it has funded more than 5,000 companies since 2005.

   Source: Y Combinator, For Investors, 2026 ^[1]

2. 2

   Ellenox counted 5,668 companies in YC's public startup directory, from the Summer 2005 batch through Winter 2026.

   Source: Ellenox, Y Combinator Statistics and Insights 2026 (February 2026), 2026 ^[2]

3. 3

   Zeni puts the number of companies YC has invested in at roughly 6,633.

   Source: Zeni, Y Combinator success rate (June 2026), 2026 ^[3]

4. 4

   After the Winter 2024 batch, YC counted more than 4,500 startups and 11,000 founders in its community.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2024 Batch (April 2024), 2024 ^[4]

5. 5

   YC moved to four batches a year, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, after running its first Fall batch in 2024 and its first Spring batch in 2025.

   Source: Y Combinator, Announcing the YC Spring 2025 batch (January 2025), 2025 ^[5]

6. 6

   YC cut its Summer 2022 batch to nearly 250 companies, 40% fewer than the 414 in Winter 2022, citing the funding downturn.

   Source: TechCrunch, Y Combinator narrows current cohort size by 40% (August 2022), 2022 ^[6]

7. 7

   Catalaize counted about 169 startups in YC's Summer 2025 batch, against 144 in the first Spring batch earlier that year.

   Source: Catalaize, Y Combinator S25 Batch Profile and AI Trends (September 2025), 2025 ^[7]

What YC's startup directory shows

1. 8

   Of the 6,190 companies in Y Combinator's public directory, 69.3% are marked Active, 17.3% Inactive, 13.1% Acquired and 0.4% (23 companies) Public.

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC directory as read in September 2026 · 6,190 YC companies · method

2. 9

   51.2% of the 207 companies from YC's 2005 to 2010 batches are marked Inactive in YC's directory and 36.2% Acquired; 10.6% are still Active.

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC directory as read in September 2026 · 207 companies from the Summer 2005 to Summer 2010 batches · method

3. 10

   YC's Winter, Spring and Summer 2026 batches hold 630 companies in YC's directory, more than the 621 in all four 2025 batches; the peak year is still 2021, with 727.

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC directory as read in September 2026 · Companies per batch: W26 199, X26 195, S26 236; 2025 batches W25 166, X25 143, S25 166, F25 146 · method

4. 11

   68.9% of the companies in YC's 2025 and 2026 batches list San Francisco as a location, against 47.7% of companies from the 2015 to 2019 batches.

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC directory as read in September 2026 · 875 of 1,270 companies (2025 to 2026 batches); 632 of 1,326 (2015 to 2019 batches) · method

5. 12

   .com fell under half of YC companies for the first time in Summer 2022, at 47.0% (109 of 232 with a domain); .ai peaked at 37.0% of the Summer 2025 batch (61 of 165).

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC batches Winter 2011 to Summer 2026 · 5,922 YC companies with a website domain

6. 13

   46.5% of the Summer 2025 batch had a close match among 500 earlier YC companies, against 18.3% in the average 2013 to 2019 batch.

   Source: FundingWatcher · YC batches Summer 2005 to Fall 2026 · 6,142 YC companies with a working domain, 48 batches

What is the Y Combinator acceptance rate

1. 14

   More than 10,000 companies apply to YC every three months, and YC says it typically accepts 1% of them.

   Source: Y Combinator, For Investors, 2026 ^[1]

2. 15

   YC selected 260 companies for its Winter 2024 batch from more than 27,000 applications, an acceptance rate under 1%.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2024 Batch (April 2024), 2024 ^[4]

3. 16

   YC received more than 24,000 applications for its Summer 2023 batch and funded 229 companies.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023), 2023 ^[8]

4. 17

   YC received more than 20,000 applications for its Winter 2023 batch and funded 282 companies.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2023 Batch (April 2023), 2023 ^[9]

5. 18

   YC received 19,000 applications for its Summer 2022 batch and funded 240 companies.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2022 Batch (September 2022), 2022 ^[10]

6. 19

   YC received 17,000 applications for its Winter 2022 batch and funded 414 companies, the largest batch in its history.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2022 Batch (March 2022), 2022 ^[11]

7. 20

   In March 2025 CNBC reported that more than 15,000 companies apply to YC, with about a 1% acceptance rate.

   Source: CNBC, Y Combinator startups are fastest growing in fund history (March 2025), 2025 ^[12]

8. 21

   59% of the companies in YC's Winter 2023 batch had applied to YC more than once.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2023 Batch (April 2023), 2023 ^[9]

How much are YC companies worth and how many are unicorns

1. 22

   YC's homepage puts the combined valuation of its companies at $1.3 trillion.

   Source: Y Combinator, homepage, 2026 ^[13]

2. 23

   In March 2025 YC said its companies were worth more than $800 billion in total, with more than 100 valued at $1 billion or more.

   Source: CNBC, Y Combinator startups are fastest growing in fund history (March 2025), 2025 ^[12]

3. 24

   More than 400 YC companies are valued above $100 million and more than 100 above $1 billion, according to YC.

   Source: Y Combinator, For Investors, 2026 ^[1]

4. 25

   In September 2023 YC counted more than 350 startups valued over $150 million and more than 90 valued over $1 billion.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023), 2023 ^[8]

5. 26

   YC CEO Garry Tan wrote in 2023 that over 5% of YC companies become unicorns.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023), 2023 ^[8]

6. 27

   YC batches from the last 10 years have a unicorn rate of 6% to 12%, Garry Tan posted in August 2025.

   Source: Garry Tan on X (August 2025), 2025 ^[14]

7. 28

   Zeni counts 118 YC unicorns, 1.78% of the companies YC has backed.

   Source: Zeni, Y Combinator success rate (June 2026), 2026 ^[3]

8. 29

   In YC batches from 2005 to 2017, unicorns are about 6% of the startups and account for 90% of the batches' total valuation growth, Rebel Fund found.

   Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the power law of Y Combinator startups (April 2024), 2024 ^[15]

9. 30

   Decacorns are 0.6% of YC companies from the 2005 to 2017 batches and account for more than half of the unicorns' valuation growth; Airbnb and Stripe alone account for more than half of the decacorns', Rebel Fund found.

   Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the power law of Y Combinator startups (April 2024), 2024 ^[15]

10. 31

    Stripe, a YC company, is valued at $107 billion, according to YC.

    Source: Y Combinator, homepage, 2026 ^[13]

11. 32

    Airbnb went public in 2020 at a valuation above $100 billion, and Coinbase in 2021 at $86 billion, according to YC.

    Source: Y Combinator, homepage, 2026 ^[13]

12. 33

    Reddit, from YC's first batch, went public in 2024 at a $6.4 billion valuation.

    Source: Y Combinator, homepage, 2026 ^[13]

13. 34

    In 2025 Meta bought 49% of Scale AI, a YC company, for more than $14 billion.

    Source: Y Combinator, homepage, 2026 ^[13]

14. 35

    Businesses on Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in 2025, up 34% from 2024 and equal to about 1.6% of global GDP.

    Source: Stripe, 2025 annual letter (February 2026), 2026 ^[16]

How many YC startups raise, exit or shut down

1. 36

   45% of YC companies raise a Series A, against 33% for the average seed-stage startup, Market Sentiment found in a study of 4,939 YC companies.

   Source: Market Sentiment in Lenny's Newsletter, Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator (February 2025), 2025 ^[17]

2. 37

   4% to 5% of YC companies become unicorns, against 2.5% for the average seed-stage startup, and about 10% reach an exit, according to the same Market Sentiment study.

   Source: Market Sentiment in Lenny's Newsletter, Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator (February 2025), 2025 ^[17]

3. 38

   More than half of YC companies are still active 10 years after their batch, against 30% for the average startup, Market Sentiment found.

   Source: Market Sentiment in Lenny's Newsletter, Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator (February 2025), 2025 ^[17]

4. 39

   Of 4,939 YC companies from 2005 to 2024, 17 had gone public and 13% had gone out of business, Market Sentiment found in its February 2025 study.

   Source: Market Sentiment in Lenny's Newsletter, Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator (February 2025), 2025 ^[17]

5. 40

   An equal investment in each YC company on its IPO day was down 49% in July 2024, against a 58% return for the S&P 500, Market Sentiment calculated.

   Source: Market Sentiment, The YC Report (July 2024), 2024 ^[18]

6. 41

   14 of the 17 YC companies that went public lost money for investors who bought on IPO day, and 3 lost more than 99% of their IPO value.

   Source: Market Sentiment, The YC Report (July 2024), 2024 ^[18]

7. 42

   About 40% of YC startups eventually reach an exit, according to Rebel Fund's database of YC companies.

   Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On YC startup exits, 2025 update (May 2025), 2025 ^[19]

8. 43

   The median YC exit takes about 4 years; exits under $100 million take about 3 years and $1 billion-plus exits nearly a decade, Rebel Fund found in ~250 exits.

   Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On YC startup exits, 2025 update (May 2025), 2025 ^[19]

9. 44

   Unicorns are about 8% of YC exits but returned about 93% of the cash that went back to YC seed investors, Rebel Fund found.

   Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On YC startup exits, 2025 update (May 2025), 2025 ^[19]

10. 45

    Zeni counts 641 YC companies acquired or merged and 21 that went public, an exit rate of 9.98%.

    Source: Zeni, Y Combinator success rate (June 2026), 2026 ^[3]

What YC invests and what stage companies join at

1. 46

   YC invests $500,000 in each company: $125,000 for 7% on a post-money SAFE and $375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with a most-favored-nation clause.

   Source: Y Combinator, About, 2026 ^[20]

2. 47

   Each YC company gets access to more than $12 million in free credits and deals from partners including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS and Google Cloud.

   Source: Y Combinator, Apply, 2026 ^[21]

3. 48

   About 1,500 investors and media attend YC Demo Day, which is invite-only.

   Source: Y Combinator, Demo Day, 2026 ^[22]

4. 49

   YC says B2B and consumer companies often get their first 40 to 50 paying customers from the YC community.

   Source: Y Combinator, About, 2026 ^[20]

5. 50

   On average 40% of the companies YC funds in each batch are just an idea, and most have no revenue, according to YC.

   Source: Y Combinator, FAQ, 2026 ^[23]

6. 51

   7% of the companies in recent YC batches had more than $50,000 in monthly revenue when accepted.

   Source: Y Combinator, FAQ, 2026 ^[23]

7. 52

   75% of the companies in YC's Summer 2023 batch had no revenue on their first day of YC, and 81% had never raised money.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023), 2023 ^[8]

8. 53

   55% of the companies in YC's Winter 2022 batch had raised money before YC.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2022 Batch (March 2022), 2022 ^[11]

What recent YC batches look like

1. 54

   At least 50% of the companies in YC's Winter 2024 batch were building around AI, according to YC.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2024 Batch (April 2024), 2024 ^[4]

2. 55

   About 80% of the companies that presented at YC's Winter 2025 Demo Day were AI-focused, CNBC reported.

   Source: CNBC, Y Combinator startups are fastest growing in fund history (March 2025), 2025 ^[12]

3. 56

   For a quarter of the startups in YC's Winter 2025 batch, 95% of the code was written by AI, YC managing partner Jared Friedman said.

   Source: TechCrunch, A quarter of startups in YC's current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generated (March 2025), 2025 ^[24]

4. 57

   YC's Winter 2025 batch grew 10% per week in aggregate, Garry Tan told CNBC in March 2025.

   Source: CNBC, Y Combinator startups are fastest growing in fund history (March 2025), 2025 ^[12]

5. 58

   Of the 144 startups in YC's Spring 2025 batch, 67 described themselves as AI agents in YC's directory, PitchBook counted.

   Source: PitchBook, Y Combinator is going all-in on AI agents (2025), 2025 ^[25]

6. 59

   Over 60% of the startups in YC's Summer 2025 batch mention AI in their one-liner or pitch, Catalaize counted.

   Source: Catalaize, Y Combinator S25 Batch Profile and AI Trends (September 2025), 2025 ^[7]

7. 60

   YC's startup directory lists 1,631 companies under the AI industry tag.

   Source: Y Combinator, AI startups directory page, 2026 ^[26]

8. 61

   21% of the companies in YC's Winter 2024 batch have a woman founder, and 11% of the batch's founders are women.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2024 Batch (April 2024), 2024 ^[4]

9. 62

   15% of the companies in YC's Summer 2023 batch have a woman founder, and 10% of the batch's founders are women.

   Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023), 2023 ^[8]

10. 63

    The average YC founder is now about 26 years old, down from about 29 between 2015 and Garry Tan's arrival in 2023, Rebel Fund found.

    Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the new Y Combinator (November 2025), 2025 ^[27]

11. 64

    Nearly half of recent YC founders have worked at one of the 20 employers Rebel Fund finds most predictive of founder success, against about 25% a decade ago.

    Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the new Y Combinator (November 2025), 2025 ^[27]

12. 65

    The share of YC startups located in the San Francisco Bay Area is approaching 85%, Rebel Fund found.

    Source: Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the new Y Combinator (November 2025), 2025 ^[27]

13. 66

    86% of the founders in YC's Winter 2023 batch lived in the Bay Area during the batch.

    Source: Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2023 Batch (April 2023), 2023 ^[9]

How much YC companies raise after Demo Day

1. 67

   471 YC companies closed named funding rounds from January 2025 to September 2026, raising a combined $13.3 billion in disclosed capital, Fundraise Insider counted.

   Source: Fundraise Insider, YC startups and companies (September 2026), 2026 ^[28]

2. 68

   The median seed round for a YC company was $4.6 million from January 2025 to September 2026, with the middle half between $3.5 million and $6.6 million, according to Fundraise Insider.

   Source: Fundraise Insider, YC startups and companies (September 2026), 2026 ^[28]

Frequently asked questions

How many companies has Y Combinator funded?

YC says it has funded more than 5,000 companies since 2005. Its public directory lists 6,190 companies as of September 2026, and YC's Winter, Spring and Summer 2026 batches alone hold 630.

What is the Y Combinator acceptance rate?

YC says it typically accepts 1% of applicants, with more than 10,000 companies applying every three months. For Winter 2024 it picked 260 companies from more than 27,000 applications. The 1.5% to 2% range that many pages quote has no YC source.

How many Y Combinator companies are unicorns?

YC says more than 100 of its companies are valued over $1 billion and more than 400 over $100 million. Zeni counts 118 unicorns. Garry Tan posted in August 2025 that YC batches from the last 10 years have a unicorn rate of 6% to 12%.

What is the combined valuation of YC companies?

YC's homepage puts it at $1.3 trillion. YC gave CNBC a figure of more than $800 billion in March 2025; the $600 billion that still appears on many pages dates from 2024.

How much does Y Combinator invest?

$500,000 per company: $125,000 for 7% on a post-money SAFE and $375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with a most-favored-nation clause. Companies also get more than $12 million in partner credits.

What share of YC startups fail?

YC's directory marks 17.3% of its 6,190 companies Inactive, 13.1% Acquired and 69.3% Active. Among companies from the 2005 to 2010 batches, 51.2% are Inactive. Market Sentiment counted 13% of 4,939 YC companies as out of business in early 2025.

Sources

1. [1]Y Combinator, For Investors. 2026.↑1 ↑14 ↑24
2. [2]Ellenox, Y Combinator Statistics and Insights 2026 (February 2026). 2026.↑2
3. [3]Zeni, Y Combinator success rate (June 2026). 2026.↑3 ↑28 ↑45
4. [4]Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2024 Batch (April 2024). 2024.↑4 ↑15 ↑54 ↑61
5. [5]Y Combinator, Announcing the YC Spring 2025 batch (January 2025). 2025.↑5
6. [6]TechCrunch, Y Combinator narrows current cohort size by 40% (August 2022). 2022.↑6
7. [7]Catalaize, Y Combinator S25 Batch Profile and AI Trends (September 2025). 2025.↑7 ↑59
8. [8]Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2023 Batch (September 2023). 2023.↑16 ↑25 ↑26 ↑52 ↑62
9. [9]Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2023 Batch (April 2023). 2023.↑17 ↑21 ↑66
10. [10]Y Combinator, Meet the YC Summer 2022 Batch (September 2022). 2022.↑18
11. [11]Y Combinator, Meet the YC Winter 2022 Batch (March 2022). 2022.↑19 ↑53
12. [12]CNBC, Y Combinator startups are fastest growing in fund history (March 2025). 2025.↑20 ↑23 ↑55 ↑57
13. [13]Y Combinator, homepage. 2026.↑22 ↑31 ↑32 ↑33 ↑34
14. [14]Garry Tan on X (August 2025). 2025.↑27
15. [15]Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the power law of Y Combinator startups (April 2024). 2024.↑29 ↑30
16. [16]Stripe, 2025 annual letter (February 2026). 2026.↑35
17. [17]Market Sentiment in Lenny's Newsletter, Pulling back the curtain on the magic of Y Combinator (February 2025). 2025.↑36 ↑37 ↑38 ↑39
18. [18]Market Sentiment, The YC Report (July 2024). 2024.↑40 ↑41
19. [19]Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On YC startup exits, 2025 update (May 2025). 2025.↑42 ↑43 ↑44
20. [20]Y Combinator, About. 2026.↑46 ↑49
21. [21]Y Combinator, Apply. 2026.↑47
22. [22]Y Combinator, Demo Day. 2026.↑48
23. [23]Y Combinator, FAQ. 2026.↑50 ↑51
24. [24]TechCrunch, A quarter of startups in YC's current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generated (March 2025). 2025.↑56
25. [25]PitchBook, Y Combinator is going all-in on AI agents (2025). 2025.↑58
26. [26]Y Combinator, AI startups directory page. 2026.↑60
27. [27]Jared Heyman, Rebel Fund, On the new Y Combinator (November 2025). 2025.↑63 ↑64 ↑65
28. [28]Fundraise Insider, YC startups and companies (September 2026). 2026.↑67 ↑68

Method

We searched Google for y combinator statistics, yc statistics, how many yc companies are there and y combinator acceptance rate, read the 20 statistics pages and reports that ranked, and counted how many of them repeat each number. We traced each number to the organisation that produced it and checked it against that page on September 24, 2026. Most counts come from YC itself: its investor page, homepage, FAQ and the batch posts it published from 2022 to 2024. YC stopped publishing application counts after Winter 2024, so later batch sizes come from Catalaize and PitchBook, which counted YC's directory. Rebel Fund and Market Sentiment ran their own studies of YC companies and their populations differ (Rebel: all YC startups or the 2005 to 2017 batches; Market Sentiment: 4,939 companies up to Fall 2024). FundingWatcher's numbers come from YC's public directory as we read it in September 2026: 6,190 companies, status and location as YC shows them. Two of them repeat findings from earlier FundingWatcher reports on YC domains and batch similarity.

FundingWatcher numbers new on this page:

• Of the 6,190 companies in Y Combinator's public directory, 69.3% are marked Active, 17.3% Inactive, 13.1% Acquired and 0.4% (23 companies) Public. Count of the status field YC shows on each company in its public startup directory. Status is YC's own label; a company YC has not updated can be marked Active after it stopped operating.
• 51.2% of the 207 companies from YC's 2005 to 2010 batches are marked Inactive in YC's directory and 36.2% Acquired; 10.6% are still Active. Status split for companies whose YC batch label falls in 2005 to 2010. The same count for 2016 to 2020 batches is 54.8% Active of 1,550.
• YC's Winter, Spring and Summer 2026 batches hold 630 companies in YC's directory, more than the 621 in all four 2025 batches; the peak year is still 2021, with 727. Count of directory companies per batch label, summed by calendar year. Fall 2026 (19 listed so far) is left out because the batch has not started.
• 68.9% of the companies in YC's 2025 and 2026 batches list San Francisco as a location, against 47.7% of companies from the 2015 to 2019 batches. Share of companies whose location field in YC's directory contains San Francisco. The field shows where a company is now, so older companies that moved away count against San Francisco.

All 68 statistics as a CSV: y-combinator-statistics.csv.

Cite this page

FundingWatcher, “Y Combinator 2026 Statistics (Updated September)”, updated September 2026, https://fundingwatcher.com/research/y-combinator-statistics/

To cite one number, link its anchor: each statistic has one, for example https://fundingwatcher.com/research/y-combinator-statistics/#stat-1.