Y Combinator was founded in March 2005 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Tappan Morris, and Trevor Blackwell, and pioneered the batch-based accelerator model that essentially every startup accelerator since has copied: fixed cohorts, a standardized check, weekly dinners with successful founders, and a demo day culminating each three-month program. The firm has funded more than 5,690 companies since inception, with more than 400 reaching unicorn status and a combined alumni portfolio valuation exceeding $600 billion - including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, and Reddit. Under President and CEO Garry Tan, who took over in January 2023, YC has leaned hard into AI, with more than half of each recent batch building AI-first products.
Not disclosed as traditional AUM ($500K standard check per company; YC Continuity growth fund) AUM71/100 Power Score™2005 FoundedSan Francisco, CA