YC Summer 2026
Early reads. These 713 companies across 4 YC batches were assessed in July 2026 on limited public evidence. None is hard to displace, and 4 are defensible for now. These standings rest on less evidence than the rest of the site.
149 companies assessed. 109 of them, 73.2%, sit in the two least protected bands. Across all 10,525 companies assessed the share is 53.3%.
The picture
This batch is a snapshot of what happens when 149 very young companies pile into the same handful of AI ideas at once. Most are pre-revenue, most have a moat score of 1, and most picked a problem space where a funded incumbent already ships the same feature. Voice AI routing, GPU marketplaces, coding agents, AI trading signals, and finance back-office automation each drew multiple entrants competing against Vapi, ElevenLabs, SF Compute, GitHub Copilot, and Oracle at once. The standing numbers say it plainly: 80 of 149 are losing its protection, 40 are protection under test, and only 29 look wide open, which here means exposed to direct competition rather than safe. The few holding steadier ground share one trait: a narrow, specific customer (Australian GP clinics, DOE nuclear facilities, industrial video capture) where no confirmed customer loss has happened yet, not because the market is empty but because the company hasn't scaled into the incumbent's path. The one thing deciding outcomes here is whether a company picked a lane a bigger, funded player hasn't already claimed, or just wrapped a frontier model and called it a product.
All 149 companies, most protected first
| Company | Standing |
|---|---|
| Agency Tool Company Builds fast OTA updates and hardware-in-loop CI for real-world robot fleets. | Protection under test |
| Alloovium AI layer that reads construction compliance paperwork across Procore, Aconex, Trimble, SharePoint | Protection under test |
| Assemble Assemble builds AI agents that do enterprise IT config work across Salesforce, SAP, Workday | Protection under test |
| Async Async builds AI agents that do back-office work for small law firms, clinics, and realty offices | Protection under test |
| Axelrod AI operating layer that sits on top of a boutique hotel's existing PMS and pricing tools | Protection under test |
| Billow AI AI agents that run accounts payable, reconciliation, and month end close | Protection under test |
| Billow AI Labs AI agents that run accounts payable, close, and FP&A work for finance teams | Protection under test |
| Coasty A 2-person YC S26 startup building an API for computer-use AI agents | Protection under test |
| Cova Licensed Michigan home care agency running scheduling, billing, and intake through AI agents. | Protection under test |
| Daqstra AI software layer that orchestrates fragmented physical test hardware for R&D engineers | Protection under test |
| Datoric Startup selling security-first, consent-chained training data to AI labs | Protection under test |
| FlowManual Two-person startup building AI to read construction bids, contracts, and submittals for back-office teams | Protection under test |
| Glen Glen builds a unified, MCP-based context layer linking AI agents and human tools. | Protection under test |
| Greypoint Industries Early-stage maker of counter-swarm interceptor drones for military use | Protection under test |
| GUILD Early-stage startup building AI software to speed up defense parts manufacturing and contracting | Protection under test |
| Inkbox Identity and comms layer giving AI agents email, phone, iMessage, and a vault | Protection under test |
| Insurf Two-person YC S26 startup drafting AI health insurance appeals as a wedge into payer-data pricing | Protection under test |
| Isengard Industries Inc YC S26 startup building mass-produced AI-guided strike drones and counter-drone systems for allied militaries | Protection under test |
| Justinian AI-native government affairs firm pairing human lobbyists with AI monitoring for startups | Protection under test |
| Last Accounting Company Agent-native accounting firm: AI agents do bookkeeping, licensed accountants sign off | Protection under test |
| Levocred YC-backed AI software that automates credit teams' workflows, like covenant checks and IC memos | Protection under test |
| Libra Robotics YC S26 startup building autonomous robots to install solar panels on utility-scale farms | Protection under test |
| Lumeria Early-stage startup building a phone-camera UV/polarized-light adapter for skin tracking | Protection under test |
| Manifold Two-person YC startup renting robots to warehouses at a per-pick price, no capex | Protection under test |
| Olam Labs Two-person startup testing AI models by having humans unknowingly play games against them | Protection under test |
| Palisade AI that finds and auto-fixes OS-level vulnerabilities across device fleets | Protection under test |
| Pluto AI voice agent that interviews professionals to build discoverable career profiles | Protection under test |
| PokerClubHub Handles crypto payments and payouts for private poker club apps like ClubGG | Protection under test |
| Prescience Two-person startup selling AI-priced self-funded health benefits to employers | Protection under test |
| Prized Lets non-engineers build internal company tools by describing them in plain English | Protection under test |
| Proprio Robotics Two-person YC startup building robots to construct and maintain data centers | Protection under test |
| Realpact AI agent that pulls property records and auto-fills real estate contracts | Protection under test |
| Shielded Early-stage YC S26 startup linking ERP and external data to track supply chain risk | Protection under test |
| Speko Speko is a YC S26 startup building one API to route voice AI across speech and language providers | Protection under test |
| SubVysion Pre-seed AI/AR startup mapping underground utilities for contractors before they dig | Protection under test |
| Trope Trope builds AI agents for SAP, Oracle, and NetSuite implementation partners | Protection under test |
| Truffle AI-native back-office software for restaurants: inventory, ordering, forecasting | Protection under test |
| Vendo Open-source layer letting SaaS end-users build their own features via plain-English AI agents | Protection under test |
| Waddle Labs Two-person YC startup building AI agents that write robot control code | Protection under test |
| Whitespace AI system that plugs into distributors' ERPs and inboxes to run order entry, planning, and quotes | Protection under test |
| 6thSense Startup selling tactile glove data and haptic datasets to train robot hands | Losing its protection |
| 83 Sciences Early-stage startup mining labs' unpublished experimental data to train AI for materials discovery | Losing its protection |
| Agnost AI Two-person startup that mines AI agent chat logs for bugs and auto-writes fixes | Losing its protection |
| Aktoria Robotics Two-person YC startup selling human teleoperators as a plug-in "API" for robots | Losing its protection |
| Almanac Open-source, self-updating code wiki generated by AI coding agents | Losing its protection |
| Amulet Two-person YC startup building AI agents that flag churn and draft customer success outreach | Losing its protection |
| Archal Two-person startup building stateful SaaS clones to test and auto-fix AI agents | Losing its protection |
| Atlas Discovery Pre-seed startup building AI foundation models to predict patient drug response | Losing its protection |
| Atomarine Startup building offshore nuclear powered data center barges (YC S26) | Losing its protection |
| Avoca Systems AI system that answers calls, schedules, and handles referrals for radiology networks | Losing its protection |
| Baud Pre-tape-out startup building multiplier-free AI chips for training and inference | Losing its protection |
| Baud Labs Pre-seed startup building multiplication-free AI chips, 3 people, tape-out planned for late 2026 | Losing its protection |
| Bizmark Bizmark builds custom software for quoting, scheduling, and inventory at manufacturers | Losing its protection |
| Bloomy AI tutoring app that gates K-12 students through mastery-based skill graphs | Losing its protection |
| Blueprints No-code copilot and MCP layer for building and backtesting Polymarket trading strategies | Losing its protection |
| Care GP AI agents that handle admin, billing, and referrals for Australian GP clinics | Losing its protection |
| Codag Codag compresses infra logs into cited snippets so AI incident agents don't drown in raw text | Losing its protection |
| Computable Marketplace to buy, sell, and redeem GPU compute hours for any week | Losing its protection |
| Control Seat AI-native software unifying PLC, SCADA, HMI, and historians for factories | Losing its protection |
| Cosmic Robotics Builds autonomous robots that install solar panels for utility-scale projects | Losing its protection |
| Definite AI agents that turn weeks of bank regulatory filings into auditor-ready receipts | Losing its protection |
| Denta Denta builds AI software to automate dental practice back-office work like insurance and billing. | Losing its protection |
| Derya AI-native freight forwarder using AI agents for quoting, booking, tracking | Losing its protection |
| Dialogus Three-person startup building infrastructure and tooling for enterprise AI voice agents | Losing its protection |
| Donkey Factory-direct import broker: takes title, inspects factories, quotes flat DDP prices for US buyers | Losing its protection |
| Earendil Robotics Seven-person startup building AI interceptor drones for squad-level counter-drone defense | Losing its protection |
| Edviro AI that finds and fixes energy waste in school buildings before it costs money | Losing its protection |
| Egoist Machines Startup building portable, user-owned memory that follows you across AI apps | Losing its protection |
| Experiential Labs Builds tools that turn agent production traces into simulated worlds for continual learning | Losing its protection |
| Fabraix Two-person YC startup building AI agents that hack other companies' AI agents | Losing its protection |
| Floracene Helps physician-owned surgery centers cut implant costs by switching to equivalent devices | Losing its protection |
| Gamgee Two-person startup building personalized mRNA cancer vaccines for dogs | Losing its protection |
| HERA AI tool that checks engineering drawings against GD&T and ASME standards | Losing its protection |
| Hop Aero Early-stage startup building rockets to deliver cargo into contested war zones | Losing its protection |
| HyperProbe SDK that streams live production runtime data into AI coding agents via MCP | Losing its protection |
| Instance Two-person YC startup building automated success detectors for robot policy evals | Losing its protection |
| Instaplay AI tool that turns text prompts into playable multiplayer browser games | Losing its protection |
| Kebra Two-person YC startup turning technician voice recordings into job notes and orders | Losing its protection |
| Levocred AI AI system that automates borrowing-base, covenant, and memo work for private-credit funds | Losing its protection |
| Litmus Litmus builds AI-resistant async work trials from a company's own code and tickets | Losing its protection |
| Locke Two-person AI-native government affairs firm serving early-stage startups navigating DC | Losing its protection |
| Maingen Two-person YC startup building RL training environments for industrial operations | Losing its protection |
| Mireye Mireye turns free U.S. federal geospatial data into an API/MCP layer for AI agents | Losing its protection |
| Molagri Toronto biotech designing resistance-free pesticides, pre-revenue, YC S26 batch | Losing its protection |
| Nebula Security AI-native security lab selling automated code auditing built by elite exploit researchers | Losing its protection |
| Neuron Industries 2-person YC startup building AI-programmable industrial controllers for PLC work | Losing its protection |
| OneCLI Open-source proxy that hides API keys and secrets from AI coding agents. | Losing its protection |
| Ooak Data Early-stage startup building a library of real business workflow data for AI training | Losing its protection |
| Operon Operon turns scanned P&ID drawings into a live, queryable plant graph for factories and plants | Losing its protection |
| Orvixo AI tool that builds live factory schedules for manufacturers, 2-person YC S26 team | Losing its protection |
| OS3 2-person YC S26 startup building semi-humanoid robots and AI for hotel labor tasks | Losing its protection |
| Osmaura AI agents that spot new legal-matter leads for corporate law firm partners | Losing its protection |
| Osseus Two-person startup building a permissioned AI memory layer across R&D tools. | Losing its protection |
| Pango Swedish-born VPN brand now folded into Point Wild's consumer-cybersecurity roll-up | Losing its protection |
| Petrarch Marketplace that sources, clears, and sells proprietary enterprise data to AI labs | Losing its protection |
| Poth Labs Two-person startup building AI software that unifies customer feedback data | Losing its protection |
| Praxis AI Praxis AI pays workers to film their jobs, building video data to train robots | Losing its protection |
| Prescience, Inc. AI-native health benefits platform for employers using level-funded plans | Losing its protection |
| ProvenMetal Early-stage startup building fast-turn, American-made PCB assembly for defense/drone buyers | Losing its protection |
| Rapidfolio AI agents that turn banks' manual compliance and fraud procedures into automated workflows | Losing its protection |
| Rational Rational builds AI agents that do AP, close, and reconciliation work for accounting teams | Losing its protection |
| Rex Rex sells AI agents that run enterprise order-to-cash work: billing, collections, cash matching. | Losing its protection |
| Rise Reforming Startup converting landfill and biogas waste gases into methanol and DME chemicals | Losing its protection |
| Risklytics Two-person YC startup scoring per-property disaster risk and brokering hard-to-place commercial insurance | Losing its protection |
| Robocurve Two-person startup building independent real-world testing for robots and physical AI models | Losing its protection |
| RonanRx Inc. AI startup that personalizes GLP-1 and peptide dosing using labs and wearables | Losing its protection |
| Salem Robotics Inc Software for autonomous robotic radiation surveys in nuclear and DOE facilities | Losing its protection |
| screenpipe Local-first app that records your screen and audio 24/7 to feed AI agents memory | Losing its protection |
| Shepherd AI work memory that indexes Slack, Notion, GitHub and more for agents | Losing its protection |
| Sidekick SMS chatbot letting factory floor workers text questions and get AI answers from manuals | Losing its protection |
| Skymerse Solo-founder startup building AI flight-ops planning and dispatch tools for airlines | Losing its protection |
| telli AI voice agents that run customer service calls for B2C companies in Europe | Losing its protection |
| Torus AI agents that cross check P&IDs and specs for capital project EPC firms | Losing its protection |
| Touchmark Touchmark charges AI companies for output quality instead of raw token usage | Losing its protection |
| Understudy Watches AI agent traces, then trains cheaper open-weight models to replace frontier ones | Losing its protection |
| Understudy Labs Gateway that helps companies swap closed AI APIs for open-weight models they own | Losing its protection |
| Verdant AI-native software that helps city and county staff process land-use permits faster | Losing its protection |
| Vestris AI agents that automate title search and closing steps in real estate deals (YC S26) | Losing its protection |
| Zaplar Zaplar builds an AI operating layer that runs hotel front desk and guest tasks automatically | Losing its protection |
| Zomma Builds AI agents that click through finance back-office systems for hedge funds | Losing its protection |
| Agentcard Issues single-use debit cards so AI agents can pay for things themselves | Little protection left |
| Alkera AI AI agent that builds and tracks data pipelines with cross-platform lineage | Little protection left |
| Belvedir Pre-launch startup building private, self-improving AI agents via RL on traces | Little protection left |
| Cerenovus Early-stage YC S26 startup building AI knowledge tools like Compendium | Little protection left |
| Conifer Local-first router that shifts AI requests to on-device models to cut cloud token bills | Little protection left |
| Context.dev API that scrapes and structures web data for AI agents and LLM pipelines | Little protection left |
| Ekpa Ekpa is a YC-backed startup offering a read-only AI dashboard and one rule-based S&P 500 trading signal for retail investors. | Little protection left |
| Florin A 3-person YC startup building a banking and finance platform for other startups | Little protection left |
| hardware intelligence Two-person startup building agentic tools for chip design, RTL debugging, and verification | Little protection left |
| Hoplite Two-person startup wrapping GPT-5.x and Claude models into a cloud coding agent | Little protection left |
| Illume Labs Illume Labs is an AI companion that reads your wearable, lab, and gene data and texts you health insights | Little protection left |
| Induction Labs 2-person YC lab building a foundation model that learns computer-use from screen-recording video | Little protection left |
| LATO AI agent that runs investor research interviews and expert calls | Little protection left |
| LemonLime No-code AI that studies your business and builds automations for you | Little protection left |
| machine0 Solo-founder tool giving AI agents persistent Linux VMs via CLI and MCP | Little protection left |
| Markov Markov builds open-source screen-recording datasets to train computer-use AI agents | Little protection left |
| Nex Early-stage startup building an AI context layer linking customer data to GTM agents | Little protection left |
| Notyfi Notyfi turns plain-English requests into live web alerts piped to AI agents | Little protection left |
| OpenRelay 2-person YC startup routing AI inference across cheap, hardware-agnostic GPUs | Little protection left |
| OpenTrade Pre-launch YC S26 app with a fantasy-stock-picking game and AI research cards | Little protection left |
| Palette Palette is a YC S26 startup offering a chat-like interface to generate and edit AI video | Little protection left |
| Parasma One-person startup writing training algorithms for cultured human neurons it doesn't own | Little protection left |
| Perceptron ML Two-person pre-revenue YC startup pitching AI tools for law firms and a separate event-alert app | Little protection left |
| rekursiv.ai Two-person YC S26 startup building autonomous AI agents that do scientific research | Little protection left |
| Rindler Rindler turns any website into an API so AI agents can browse and act on it | Little protection left |
| Totalis Startup building a cross-venue parlay aggregator for prediction markets on Solana | Little protection left |
| Traceforce Endpoint monitoring that finds AI apps and MCP connections on company devices | Little protection left |
| TrustAI Early startup checking AI agents for compliance risk inside SAP's ERP systems | Little protection left |
| Tsenta AI agent that auto-fills and submits job applications on your behalf | Little protection left |
Questions people ask
- did yc s26 batch crowd into the same ai ideas
- Yes. Multiple companies picked voice AI routing, GPU compute marketplaces, coding agents, and AI trading signals at the same time, running directly into Vapi, SF Compute, GitHub Copilot, and Robinhood respectively.
- are any yc s26 companies actually safe from competition
- None are fully clear, but Salem Robotics, Osseus, and Donkey show the lowest pressure scores in the batch because they sit in narrow, physical, or hard-to-copy niches like nuclear facility surveys and factory-direct sourcing.
- how many yc s26 companies are struggling
- 80 of the 149 companies assessed are losing its protection and 40 are protection under test, leaving only 29 in a clearer position, and even those face high competitive pressure.
- which yc s26 startups target enterprise finance automation
- Zomma, Billow AI Labs, Rex, and Levocred all target finance back-office or credit team automation, and each is running into either UiPath, Oracle/NetSuite, an Anthropic-Blackstone-Goldman joint venture, or PitchBook's Lumonic in the same space.
- what yc s26 startups avoid direct ai competition
- Salem Robotics, working in nuclear facility radiation surveys, and Cerenovus, an early pre-launch knowledge graph tool, both currently show no documented customer loss simply because no rival has moved into their specific space yet.
What to watch
- A batch company announces its first named enterprise customer after months of pre-revenue status
- An incumbent like Qualia, Genesys, or Khan Academy ships a feature that directly matches a batch company's pitch
- A batch company raises a follow-on round specifically citing a narrow physical or regulated niche rather than a general AI agent pitch
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