It's a record year for startups at Y Combinator’s Winter Demo Day, with about 400 companies participating.
Each startup had 60 seconds to pitch investors live via Zoom. Half of the Winter batch presented on Tuesday, with the rest scheduled to present on Wednesday. This is also the first cohort to receive $500,000 investments, as Y Combinator announced in January.
The Bay Area accelerator invested in 414 startups during this round, selected from a pool of 17,000 applications. About half of the startups are based outside of the U.S., with one-fifth from the Bay Area.
Ten percent of the founders in this cohort identify as women, 18% are Asian, 12% are LatinX, 6% are Black and 5% are Middle Eastern or North African.
Enterprise and B2B software dominated the Winter cohort with around one-third of the startups focused on those areas, according to Y Combinator, and fintech startups made up nearly a quarter of the batch. Consumer products made up the next largest share at 13%, with biotech and health care at 11%, developer tools at 7%, proptech at 4%, climate/energy/sustainability also at 4% and aerospace at 1%.
Web3 was also a growing theme this year, according to Y Combinator's portfolio database, with 28 startups identifying themselves as working in web3, decentralized finance, blockchain, cryptocurrency or NFTs including six San Francisco-based startups: SimpleHash, Cashmere, Winter, earnJARVIS, Courtyard and LiquiFi.
Here are the Bay Area companies that pitched on Tuesday:
- 1Flow (SF): creating a user engagement platform for mobile and web apps to reduce churn and increase conversions.
- Alga Biosciences (SF): Modifying kelp to make cattle feed more efficient, save farmers money and prevent cows from burping methane.
- Alixia (SF): developing cancer treatments that target mitochondria.
- Arc (SF): a fintech platform that is customized for SaaS businesses.
- Azuki (SF): a subscription service for Japanese Manga comics with an ad-supported fremium tier.
- Blaze (SF): helping businesses transform customer support data into product insights.
- Bobidi (SF): a platform for gamified bug bounties as a service for AI companies.
- Cashmere (SF): a crypto wallet for web3 organizations built on Solana that will have multi-chain support.
- Courtyard (SF): creating infrastructure for NFTs that are backed by physical assets.
- Criya (San Jose): developing a platform for creative professionals to manage their businesses.
- DynamoFL (SF): federated learning platform that allows data scientists to train models without collecting user data.
- Emigre (Palo Alto): a fintech product for Indian expats to make remittances, shopping and investing easier.
- Engage Bio (Santa Clara): developing mRNA immunotherapies for cancer treatment.
- Eto (SF): developing an open-source platform to manage AI datasets.
- Eventual (SF): a data warehouse specifically for processing images and video.
- Firezone (Mountain View): an open-source, fast alternative to corporate VPNs.
- Forest (SF): a digital property management platform and neobank for homeowners associations.
- GrowthBook (Palo Alto): an open-source platform for companies to manage feature flags and A/B testing.
- HelloGuru (SF): a no-code tool for businesses to sync customer data.
- Hokali (SF): a marketplace for finding and selling sports lessons.
- Humand (SF): an app for internal communications and HR management
- Koko (SF): works with social networks to provide non-profit mental health services online.
- Lifecast (Palo Alto): technology that is making VR video that won't cause motion sickness.
- Mederva Health (SF): connects doctors in developing countries with US-based specialists for consultations that can improve patient outcomes.
- Mintlify (SF): automating documentation for writing code.
- MosaicAI (Oakland): automating call center quality assurance.
- Pelm (SF): creating a payments platform specifically designed for utilities.
- PermitFlow (San Jose): building a platform for construction permit management.
- Phoenix Hydrogen (Berkeley): creating a commodity marketplace for hydrogen.
- Ping Labs (SF): consumer software for making professional-like video interviews.
- Plover Parametrics (SF): creating a platform for climate change insurance that pays out immediately.
- Posh (SF): automating electric vehicle battery recycling by making disassembly fast, safe and scalable.
- PropelAuth (SF): team authentication services for B2B software businesses.
- Re-mint (SF): a marketplace for fashion brands to resell secondhand clothing directly to consumers.
- Rosebud Biosciences (San Carlos): enabling new drug development by testing drugs on micro-organs that have the same genetic mutations as patients.
- RTHM (Redwood City): a telehealth platform for patients with long Covid symptoms
- Sieve (Berkeley): creating AI infrastructure for managing video.
- SimpleHash (SF): an API for managing and querying NFT data.
- SixWheel (San Mateo): retrofitting diesel semi trucks to turn them into electric hybrid vehicles.
- Soteri Skin (SF): direct-to-consumer non-prescription skincare for people with eczema.
- SubscriptionFlow (SF): subscription revenue management platform for small businesses.
- Toko (SF): a subscription service for English language learners in East Asia that lets users learn by having conversations with an AI platform.
- Trusty (SF): a proptech platform for off-market deals.
- Unai (SF): developing a VR headset that makes social media interactions more lifelike.
- Unlayer (SF): creating tools for embeddable email and web editing software for businesses.
- Vessel (SF): creating a universal API for CRM management.
- Wingback (SF): providing SaaS companies tools and APIs to price and package products without an engineering team.
- Winter (SF): a checkout widget for selling NFTs with credit cards or bank accounts without the need for a crypto wallet.
