Overview
Y Combinator functions as an accelerator and early-stage investor with an expanded growth-stage presence in New York [1]. In Q2 2026, it ranked as the second most active investor in New York City startups, completing 8 deals while expanding its growth-stage focus in health tech, AI fintech, and enterprise software [2]. The organization's company directory identifies 220 AI startups headquartered in New York City that have received Y Combinator backing [3]. During July 2026, Y Combinator participated in New York AI funding rounds including Henry AI's $16.5 million seed round and dili's $15 million Series A [4].
Leadership & org chart
20 alumniwhere they went →Investments
Aleph
NYC company founded in 2020 by Albert Gozzi, offering an AI-native financial planning and analysis platform that connects company data through Excel and Google Sheets and eliminates the bulk of manual reporting work for finance teams.
Avallon
Williamsburg, Brooklyn company founded by Cornelius Schramm, Bryan Guin, Moritz Bartusch and Leander Peter, building AI agents that run insurance claims operations end to end, from intake calls and medical-report extraction to coordinating with employers and repair shops.
Avoca
An AI front office platform that provides call handling, scheduling, and customer communications for home services businesses
Cinder
A trust and safety platform that deploys AI agents to help companies detect and respond to digital abuse, fraud, and manipulation
Dili
An AI-native compliance platform that automates prevailing wage monitoring and certified payroll review for infrastructure, construction, and energy projects
F2
F2 is the AI platform for private markets investors.
Henry
Automating Deal Decks for Commercial Real Estate Brokers
Nourish
Telehealth platform connecting chronic-condition patients with insurance-covered registered dietitians
PermitFlow
NYC company founded in 2021 by Francis Thumpasery and Samuel Lam, building construction permitting software that automates permit preparation and submission.
Prosper
Prosper builds AI phone agents for healthcare providers.
Ralo
Ralo is the first AI-native mortgage broker.
Stepful
New York company running an AI-powered training platform for allied healthcare jobs.
Taktile
Decision platform letting risk and fraud teams at banks and fintechs build, test and run automated credit and onboarding decision flows with AI.
Warp
An AI-native employee management platform that automates payroll, compliance, and benefits for high-growth companies
In the news
- Y Combinator’s Garry Tan wants US open-weight AI labs to ‘distill’ frontier models, tooTan wants smaller, American open-weight AI labs to use the same kind of training techniques on American frontier AI labs, giving the U.S. a more robust set of open-weight options that aren’t Chinese.
TechCrunch AI · Sep 11, 2026
- The 7 Largest NYC Tech Startup Funding Rounds of August 2026Eight NYC startups. One $116M raise. August 2026's largest funding rounds span healthcare, AI, fintech, and robotics. Which companies made the list?
AlleyWatch · Sep 10, 2026
- The sameness problem behind those unappetizing AI-generated menusWhile restaurant owners might look to generative AI as a shortcut to sprucing up their menu, customers can viscerally sense that something is wrong with the food.
- Crusoe reportedly raises $3B at a $30B valuationThe round came together after the data center developer reportedly secured a $13 billion contract with Jane Street.
- Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrailsAbliteration.AI is making powerful AI models without guardrails easier to access, arguing that giving defenders the same tools as bad actors could ultimately improve cybersecurity.
- OpenAI launches Astra, its powerful (and controversial) new modelOpenAI claims that Astra represents "a new frontier on computer and browser use," and that it handles tasks with unmatched "speed, accuracy, and safety."
- Ollie is betting its focus on privacy can help it win the AI assistant raceThe family-focused AI assistant wants access to the details of your everyday life, but says it won’t use that data to train AI models or share it with others.
- Google’s latest AI weather model gives you no excuse to forget your umbrellaWeatherNext 3 is the latest wave of a sea change in meteorology brought out by deep learning techniques. Google says it will start feeding into weather information users see in search, Google Maps, and Gemini.
Alumni 37 went on to found or lead
Aidan DewarYC W21→Co-Founder & CEO at Nourish
Alex Atallah→CEO, Co-Founder at OpenRouter
Anand ChaturvediYC S23 Batch→Co-Founder, CEO at Dili
Andrew Zelaya→Chief Technology Officer at Gradia Health
Apurva Shrivastava→Founder at Avoca
Ariel Katz→CEO & Co-founder at H1- PArjun LalwaniSpring Batch (X25)→Co-Founder & CEO at Ralo
- PBrandon Abreu SmithF25→Co-Founder & CTO at Structured AI
Carl Madi→Co-Founder & CEO at Stepful- PDeepak ChhuganiYCG F21, Growth Program→Founder/CEO at Nuvocargo
Frank Sondors 🥓→Co-Founder & CEO at Salesforge
Helly Shah→Co-Founder & CTO at Ralo
NYC presence
- Ranked the second most active investor in NYC startups in Q2 2026 with 8 deals, with expanded growth-stage presence in health tech, AI fintech and enterprise software[2]
AI investing
- Participated in New York AI rounds in July 2026 including Henry AI's $16.5M seed and dili's $15M Series A[4]
Something wrong or missing? Send an update. Fixed within 24 hours.