🚀 Y Combinator×❄️ Winter 2019

YC Winter 2019: The Era of High-Margin Vertical Automation

194 startups in this batch

What Was YC WINTER 2019?

Winter 2019 arrived at the height of the SaaS gold rush, where the focus shifted from horizontal tools to deep vertical integration in legacy sectors. YC was aggressively funding founders who could bridge the gap between traditional industries like insurance and genomics and modern cloud infrastructure before the macro shifts of 2020.

What These 194 Startups Built and Proved

This cohort proved that high-friction industries were willing to pay a premium for workflow digitization and API-first back offices. They successfully validated the demand for automated document generation and the use of proprietary data sets to disrupt established, slow-moving markets like real estate, legal, and drug discovery.

What Failed and What to Learn From It

Many startups from this era faced headwinds when their "automation" still required significant manual oversight or expensive sales cycles to penetrate legacy industries. The lesson for today's builder is that incremental efficiency is no longer a sufficient moat; the market now demands solutions that completely replace human-intensive processes rather than just managing them.

The Relaunch Opportunity in 2026

A solo builder in 2026 can take the vertical SaaS blueprints of W19 and replace the UI-heavy dashboards with agentic AI layers. Instead of building a tool for lawyers to draft documents, build an autonomous legal agent that handles the entire negotiation lifecycle independently, leveraging the market readiness these founders first identified.

1910YC

active

Multimodal AI Platform for Modality Agnostic Drug Discovery™

📍 Boston📅 2021

54GeneYC

shutdown

Precision medicine for Africans and the global population

📍 Lagos📅 2018

BoardRE is a new type of mortgage company that upgrades any offer…

📍 Denver📅 2021

Upskilling bootcamp for India

📍 Gurugram📅 2018

Disney meets Airbnb Experiences

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

AI Insurance is the platform that runs insurance companies

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

AlloYC

shutdown

Allo is an app that helps neighboring families meet and help each…

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Fulfillment platform to build Southeast Asia e-commerce operations

📍 Shenzhen📅 2018

AI technology to generate on-figure garment images for fashion eCommerce without physical models or photographers.

📍 Brooklyn📅 2017

AlpacaYC

active

API-first stock and crypto brokerage platform

📍 San Mateo📅 2018

AmpUpYC

active

We make EV charging as simple and reliable as LED lights

📍 Cupertino📅 2018

AscenYC

acquired

EOR for the staffing industry

📍 Boston📅 2018

AshbyYC

active

All-in-one recruiting platform that empowers hiring excellence in…

📍 San Francisco📅 2022

AskdataYC

acquired

Frictionless Data

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

AtlasYC

active

Modern spend management & concierge.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

We produce cancer-curing materials used in nuclear medicine.

📍 Idaho Falls📅 2018

Visitor analytics for physical retail stores using existing security…

📍 London📅 2018

AuroraQYC

shutdown

Building the first practical, integrated quantum computer.

📍 Waterloo📅 2018

AvalancheYC

shutdown

Referral program SDK for startups

📍 San Francisco📅 2021

AvoYC

active

Fixing data quality in product analytics.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

AXDRAFTYC

acquired

AXDRAFT helps corporations draft, negotiate and approve documents 10x…

📍 Kyiv📅 2018

BaltoYC

acquired

Acquired by FuboTV (NYSE: FUBO) - Contest automation software…

📍 San Francisco📅 2019

BasementYC

shutdown

The social network for your close friends.

📍 New York📅 2018

BasilicaYC

shutdown

Basilica is an API that embeds high-dimensional data like images and…

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

BensenYC

active

Online and phone ordering for restaurant takeout and delivery

📍 Boston📅 2018

Last-mile delivery for perishables.

📍 San Francisco📅 2020

BlitzIQYC

shutdown

Note taking workspace for B2B sales teams

📍 Unknown📅 2022

Building the first sensor enabled marketplace for repeat purchases

📍 Seattle📅 2018

Brain Longevity

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Building infrastructure to expand scope and quality of virtual care

📍 Miami📅 2021

We bring AI algorithms, built by researchers everywhere, to the clinic

📍 San Francisco📅 2020

Platform enabling creators to receive direct payments, memberships, and sell digital goods from supporters.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Encarte is building 1-click checkout for all online stores.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

CaptureYC

shutdown

All your notes, tasks, and files in one super-fast workspace.

📍 New York📅 2018

CareerTuYC

shutdown

Online school for Chinese to learn in-demand digital skills

📍 New York📅 2018

CaribouYC

active

Full-stack Transfer Pricing for global startups

📍 London📅 2018

CatchYC

acquired

Benefits for independent workers.

📍 New York📅 2019

CentaurYC

active

Quality-first data labeling for model evaluation and training

📍 Boston📅 2018

ChaserYC

shutdown

No code app builder.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

CherryYC

shutdown

Cherry lets employees choose their own workplace perks.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Cityfurnish - Commitment-free furniture rentals for a better you!

📍 New Delhi📅 2018

CocoonYC

acquired

Bring your most important groups closer together

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

The best phone for communities in America

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

ComraderyYC

shutdown

White-label Bookface for companies and communities!

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

ConvexYC

acquired

Software for the commercial services industry.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Convictional is reinventing business operations

📍 Toronto📅 2018

CosmicYC

active

Cosmic is a headless CMS and API toolkit

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

CoursedogYC

acquired

Higher Ed's Best Friend - integrated academic operations software.

📍 New York📅 2018

CredPalYC

active

CredPal is a buy now pay later company in Africa that allows…

📍 Lagos📅 2018

CuantoYC

active

Building the operating system for Latin America's internet creators

📍 Panama City📅 2018

DaggerYC

active

Develop your CI/CD pipelines as code and run them anywhere

📍 San Francisco📅 2022

Daily telehealth care for people with COPD, CHF, hypertension, and…

📍 San Jose📅 2018

DatamodeYC

shutdown

Datamode (datamode.com) is a tool for engineers to instantly diagnose…

📍 Seattle📅 2018

DeelYC

active

The all-in-one HR and payroll platform for global teams

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

AI-powered sales coaching

📍 Munich📅 2018

DevFlightYC

shutdown

Managed equipment data pipelines for manufacturers

📍 Somerville📅 2018

DocbotYC

acquired

No description available

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

DockupYC

active

On demand ephemeral environments to run manual and automated tests.

📍 Mountain View📅 2018

DocucharmYC

shutdown

Automate paperwork by turning documents into structured data.

📍 Mountain View📅 2018

DoorportYC

acquired

Acquired by Alarm.com - We make existing apartment access smart.

📍 New York📅 2018

DopplerYC

active

Secure secrets. Prevent breaches. Keep teams moving.

📍 Remote📅 2020

Reduce payment fraud

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

EdystYC

active

Edyst is a peer-to-peer online learning platform where students learn…

📍 Hyderabad📅 2018

ElphYC

acquired

Acquired by Brex. Building digital payments infrastructure.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Helping great teams hire better frontline workers, faster.

📍 Buenos Aires📅 2018

Precision-first therapies

📍 Palo Alto📅 2020

Evo.DoYC

shutdown

QA Bots for Games

📍 Tel Aviv-Yafo📅 2018

No description available

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

ExlyYC

active

One stop shop for creators to launch, manage & grow their knowledge…

📍 New Delhi📅 2018

FIRSTYC

active

The best way for any business to offer delivery.

📍 Philadelphia📅 2018

AI-driven learning, content, and coaching for sales teams

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

FLOWER CO. sells weed on the internet.

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

ForageYC

acquired

Online job simulations for companies to train, and then hire, students

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

The everything store for restaurants in LATAM.

📍 São Paulo📅 2018

FuseYC

shutdown

Unified API for financial data aggregators.

📍 New York📅 2018

FuzzbuzzYC

acquired

Fuzzing as a Service

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

GeositeYC

acquired

Geosite is an enterprise SaaS platform for spatial data.

📍 Palo Alto📅 2018

GlideYC

active

Create the app your business needs, without coding.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

GlobeYC

active

coinbase for derivatives

📍 Seychelles; Remote📅 2018

GoLinksYC

active

AI-driven platform for creating intuitive, easy-to-remember short links called Go Links® to retrieve and share internal knowledge quickly.

📍 San Jose📅 2016

Building software to remove friction in travel

📍 Bellevue📅 2018

We deliver affordable renewable energy direct to customers and are…

📍 Austin📅 2018

Simplifying Payments and Compliance for Construction Suppliers

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

HatchYC

acquired

AI-powered platform for customer service representatives handling voice, SMS, and email conversations to drive revenue.

📍 Richmond📅 2018

Heart makes electric airplanes with an all-electric range of 250 miles

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

HeraldYC

shutdown

A collaborative repository for user feedback.

📍 Dublin📅 2018

HypnosYC

shutdown

A digital sleep journal that helps you discover how your habits impact your sleep by pairing mood, activities, and sleep tracker data.

📍 Dallas📅 2018

InitoYC

active

Enabling better self care with at-home hormone tracking.

📍 Bengaluru📅 2018

InsightYC

acquired

The first extensible browser for iOS

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

We built the world's first automated digital pathology lab.

📍 Houston📅 2018

Smart gels for local drug delivery to the gut

📍 Palo Alto📅 2018

Intelline makes the world's most efficient fuel agnostic engines for…

📍 Waterloo📅 2020

InterPrimeYC

acquired

Safe & Secure Cash Management for Businesses

📍 Menlo Park📅 2018

Flying motorcycles

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

JuziBotYC

active

Intercom for WeChat, help companies to acquire, engage, retain…

📍 Beijing📅 2018

KalshiYC

active

1st federally regulated exchange where people can trade on events

📍 New York📅 2018

KeeperYC

active

AI tax filing for complex returns

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

KeynuaYC

active

E-signatures with identity verification for Latin America

📍 Lima📅 2018

KopaYC

shutdown

Find furnished rentals and compatible housemates for 1-12 month stays

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

KoviYC

acquired

Making car ownership more inclusive, flexible and simple.

📍 São Paulo📅 2018

LandedYC

active

Generative AI for frontline worker hiring

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

LatchelYC

active

24/7 emergency maintenance department for property managers and…

📍 Seattle📅 2018

Living therapies for pets first, and their people next

📍 Minneapolis📅 2018

LezzooYC

active

Lezzoo is an on-demand delivery Superapp for Iraq.

📍 Erbil📅 2018

MageYC

shutdown

The safest way to buy and sell collectibles

📍 Kiel📅 2018

Maitian.aiYC

shutdown

Open, grab-n-go marketplace powered by computer vision for unmanned retail stores.

📍 Singapore📅 2018

We turn CO2 into battery-grade graphite and oxygen.

📍 Richmond📅 2018

Autonomous trucks to fully automate long-haul freight shipping

📍 Seoul📅 2018

MedCrypt gives medical device vendors cybersecurity features in a few…

📍 San Diego📅 2018

MemfaultYC

acquired

First IoT reliability platform for debugging, monitoring, OTA updates

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

MiddeskYC

active

We make it easier for B2B companies to transact with one another

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

MobotYC

active

Mobot is a QA-as-a-service platform using actual mechanical robots

📍 New York📅 2018

MudrexYC

active

India's largest crypto investing paltform

📍 Mountain View📅 2018

NabisYC

active

Nabis is the largest licensed cannabis wholesale platform.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

NALAYC

active

Building Payments for the Next Billion.

📍 New York📅 2018

Frozen beauty products.

📍 Philadelphia📅 2018

We put farms inside restaurants, so customers get healthier food and…

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

The core engine of supply chain in LATAM

📍 Unknown📅 2018

NumeroYC

active

Modern fundraising software for political campaigns and nonprofits.

📍 San Francisco📅 2021

OktetoYC

active

Cloud Development Environments with one click

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest…

📍 Oxford📅 2018

AI Agents for Admissions Teams in Higher Education

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Reshaping industrial quality with AI, hardware, and software

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

PachamaYC

acquired

Restoring nature to solve climate change.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

ParkerYC

active

Parker is a digital bank.

📍 San Francisco📅 2021

PengramYC

shutdown

Indoor navigation through augmented reality on your phone.

📍 Santa Clara📅 2018

PerShopYC

shutdown

Your personal clothing store!

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

PNOĒYC

active

Enabling health professionals to prescribe clinical-grade wellness…

📍 Athens📅 2020

Pools is a memberships platform for event organizers

📍 New York📅 2018

Upgrades existing automatic swing door motors for hands-free opening via smartphone app.

📍 Provo📅 2018

B2B supplier of fresh/healthy packaged food

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

The SMS revenue platform for e-commerce merchants

📍 Phoenix📅 2018

PreflightYC

acquired

No-code web app testing platform available as a Chrome extension for automated testing across browsers and devices.

📍 Chicago📅 2018

Patient Intelligence Platform for Genetic Disease

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

We use solar and wind power to make zero net carbon electrofuels

📍 Santa Cruz📅 2018

ProntoYC

active

Ride-sharing for second-tier cities in Latin America.

📍 Mexico City📅 2018

We are a connected network of smart health machines in India.

📍 India📅 2018

PyxaiYC

active

An assessment tool that evaluates people to predict future success

📍 Boston📅 2018

RavnYC

active

Ravn is building a heads-up display for soldiers.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

rct AIYC

active

build AI NPCs

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

The Future of Supply Chain Data Tracking and Visibility

📍 Unknown📅 2018

We solve drug resistance for cancer

📍 Menlo Park📅 2018

RuneYC

active

Talk & play multiplayer games with your friends!

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Language models for enterprise applications.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Tuition collection service for K-12 private schools in Africa

📍 Lagos📅 2019

SciTokYC

active

Platform for scientists to share their research via videos

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Talent AI improving quality of hire

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Trade finance company for Indian exporters

📍 New Delhi📅 2018

ShefYC

active

Shef is a Marketplace for Homemade Food

📍 San Francisco📅 2019

Shiok Meats is a cell-based clean shrimp company, the first of its…

📍 Singapore📅 2018

ShipperYC

active

Southeast Asia’s e-commerce logistics and enablement platform

📍 Jakarta📅 2019

SimmerYC

shutdown

We do reviews for dishes. Our app helps users find the very best…

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Online engineering college for India. Learn technical skills & get…

📍 Chennai📅 2018

SlapdashYC

acquired

Work at the speed of thought

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

We create automation technology for the cannabis industry.

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

SpaceRydeYC

shutdown

The Rocket Network: Sustainable & On-Demand Delivery Anywhere in Space

📍 Toronto📅 2020

Large Scale Genomic Data Mining Software

📍 Seattle📅 2019

Tech enabled business and employment litigation law firm.

📍 Orlando📅 2018

Investing in innovation

📍 LA📅 2018

Automating Cyber Security Incident Response Through Artificial…

📍 Unknown📅 2018

SunsamaYC

active

Daily planner for busy professionals

📍 Kailua📅 2018

Superb AI provides end-to-end computer vision MLOps platform

📍 San Mateo📅 2018

Design system platform joins developers and designers together

📍 Prague📅 2018

Technology for Trucking

📍 Vancouver📅 2018

Taali is creating popcorn 2.0 from popped water lily seeds

📍 New York📅 2018

Tailor-EDYC

shutdown

AI-powered learning platform providing personalized learning experiences, resource recommendations, and skill-based training paths for education and corporate settings.

📍 Tel Aviv📅 2018

AI software for instant fashion design, pattern generation, 3D visualization, and production-ready manufacturing documentation.

📍 San Mateo📅 2024

Autonomous robots for retails.

📍 Shenzhen📅 2018

TermiusYC

active

Termius is an SSH client with team collaboration features

📍 Unknown📅 2018

The global community for the South Asia-curious

📍 New York📅 2018

ThriveAgric help Farmers in Africa access finance, insight and Markets

📍 Abuja📅 2018

AI driven professional engineering firm

📍 Singapore📅 2018

Exoskeletons to help people walk, starting with children

📍 Toronto📅 2018

TruoraYC

active

Reliable background checks & fraud prevention tools for Latin America.

📍 Cali📅 2018

Universal, Pure-GPU HTML Renderer

📍 San Francisco📅 2024

Furnished Co-living Apartments for International Students, here in…

📍 Los Angeles📅 2019

UpsolveYC

active

Helping low-income Americans overcome debt and rebuild credit at…

📍 New York📅 2018

ValoYC

active

Cutting edge hydrofoil systems for boatbuilders

📍 Alameda📅 2018

VectordashYC

shutdown

Play high-end PC games on your laptop by streaming them.

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

VertoYC

active

Cross-Border Payments and FX Simplified

📍 London📅 2018

VislyYC

acquired

Build React components visually

📍 Remote📅 2018

No description available

📍 Unknown📅 2018

Unlocking the utility of genomics for the world.

📍 Cambridge📅 2020

Non-profit building open-source voting machines for US elections.

📍 CA📅 2018

Travel planner for researching, organizing, and mapping your trip

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

WeatherCheck monitors properties for hail damage so that insurance…

📍 Louisville📅 2018

WindsorYC

acquired

AI Powered Personalized Videos

📍 San Francisco📅 2018

Windwalk is the industry leader in building, growing, and operating…

📍 Austin📅 2018

WorkCloutYC

acquired

Safety & quality software for industrial sectors.

📍 Los Angeles📅 2018

XGenomes is building the sequencing technology of the future.

📍 Cambridge📅 2018

YourChoice therapeutics is revolutionizing the contraceptive market…

📍 Berkeley📅 2018

ZeroDownYC

acquired

Find beautiful homes

📍 San Francisco📅 2019

#1 Data platform for restaurants. Acquired by Thanx

📍 San Mateo📅 2018