Can I get founders too?

Search records list the company only. Use the Y Combinator company source for founders, or the founders search source.

Do I pay for lookups that come back empty?

No. You are charged per result, so a request that finds nothing costs nothing. Testing this against a messy list is free to get wrong.

What does a request cost?

1 point per returned record, which is $1 per 1,000, and only records that come back are charged. Points come out of your monthly plan allowance.

Startup & Funding Data

Y Combinator Companies Search API and MCP — Filter by Batch, Industry, Region and Team Size

Send a keyword and any of the filters (batches, industries, regions, team size range, hiring, top company, nonprofit) and get matching companies back as JSON: name, link, one-liner, description, batch, status, stage, team size, industries, regions, tags, location, website, hiring flag and launch date. Sort by relevance or newest first.

Run it in the app Read the API docs

You send: an optional keyword and filters (batches, industries, regions, team size range, hiring, top company, nonprofit, sort order) plus a max_items cap (up to 250)
You get back: matching companies with one-liner, batch, status, industries, regions, team size and website
Coverage: Y Combinator records with a public page.
Price: 1 point per returned record — $1 per 1,000; Billed per record actually returned, capped by max_items. A request that returns nothing costs nothing.

Comparison

Ways to get this data

Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.

Approach	What it takes	Cost	Trade-off
Y Combinator directly	Type the query into Y Combinator and read the results	Free, and slow	Fine for one record, useless across a list, and the layout differs on every platform
Building a scraper	Write it, host it, and repair it when Y Combinator changes its pages	Engineering time	A maintenance commitment for something that isn't your product
NeuralVerge	One request, the same shape as every other source in the catalog	$1 per 1,000, misses not billed	Returns what Y Combinator publishes at request time. Other platforms are separate sources with the same request format

Response

What you get back

Every field in the example response below.

Field	Type	Description
`session_id`	string	Id of this run, for tracing.
`kind`	string	Source type of the response.
`max_items`	number	The cap on returned records, as run.
`start_page`	number	Page the run started from.
`partial`	boolean	True when the run stopped before reaching max_items.
`human`	string	Readable summary: the query, how many results came back and how many were found.
`total_points`	number	Points charged for the run.
`machine.total_items`	number	Number of companies returned in this response.
`machine.total_found`	number	Total matches reported by the platform, when it reports one.
`machine.first_item.id`	string	Company slug.
`machine.first_item.name`	string	Company name.
`machine.first_item.url`	string	Link to the company page.
`machine.first_item.alias`	string	Slug as the directory uses it.
`machine.first_item.yc_id`	number	Numeric company id.
`machine.first_item.one_liner`	string	One-line description.
`machine.first_item.description`	string	Longer description. Shortened in the sample.
`machine.first_item.batch`	string	Batch, e.g. Summer 2013.
`machine.first_item.status`	string	Company status, e.g. Public.
`machine.first_item.stage`	string	Stage as listed, e.g. Growth.
`machine.first_item.team_size`	number	Team size as listed.
`machine.first_item.industry`	string	Top-level industry.
`machine.first_item.subindustry`	string	Industry and sub-industry.
`machine.first_item.industries`	array	Industry list.
`machine.first_item.regions`	array	Region list.
`machine.first_item.tags`	array	Tags.
`machine.first_item.location`	string	Location as listed.
`machine.first_item.website`	string	Company website.
`machine.first_item.logo`	string	Logo URL.
`machine.first_item.former_names`	array	Earlier names. Empty in the sample.
`machine.first_item.is_hiring`	boolean	Whether the company is marked as hiring.
`machine.first_item.top_company`	boolean	Whether the company is marked as a top company.
`machine.first_item.nonprofit`	boolean	Whether the company is a nonprofit.
`machine.first_item.launched_at`	string	Launch date (YYYY-MM-DD).
`machine.items[]`	array	Companies returned, same shape as first_item.
`machine.page_count`	number	Pages read for the run.
`machine.blocked`	boolean	Whether the platform refused the request.
`machine.proxy_traffic_bytes`	number	Size of the data transferred for the run, in bytes.

Response

Example response

A real response, as returned.

{
  "session_id": "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111",
  "kind": "yc_companies_search",
  "max_items": 2,
  "start_page": 1,
  "partial": false,
  "human": "# Y Combinator — companies search\n\n- **Query:** max_items=2\n- **Results:** 2 of 6283 found\n- **Proxy traffic:** 7.0 KB",
  "machine": {
    "total_items": 2,
    "first_item": {
      "id": "doordash",
      "name": "DoorDash",
      "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
      "alias": "doordash",
      "yc_id": 531,
      "one_liner": "Restaurant delivery.",
      "description": "Founded in 2013, DoorDash is a San Francisco-based technology company passionate about transforming local businesses and dedicated to enabling new ways of working, earning, and living. Today, DoorDash",
      "batch": "Summer 2013",
      "status": "Public",
      "stage": "Growth",
      "team_size": 8600,
      "industry": "Consumer",
      "subindustry": "Consumer -> Food and Beverage",
      "industries": [
        "Consumer",
        "Food and Beverage"
      ],
      "regions": [
        "United States of America",
        "America / Canada"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Marketplace",
        "E-commerce"
      ],
      "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
      "website": "http://doordash.com",
      "logo": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/d13287c52acc96909f32342e85c26a33cfdac310.png",
      "former_names": [],
      "is_hiring": true,
      "top_company": true,
      "nonprofit": false,
      "launched_at": "2013-05-02"
    },
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "doordash",
        "name": "DoorDash",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/doordash",
        "alias": "doordash",
        "yc_id": 531,
        "one_liner": "Restaurant delivery.",
        "description": "Founded in 2013, DoorDash is a San Francisco-based technology company passionate about transforming local businesses and dedicated to enabling new ways of working, earning, and living. Today, DoorDash",
        "batch": "Summer 2013",
        "status": "Public",
        "stage": "Growth",
        "team_size": 8600,
        "industry": "Consumer",
        "subindustry": "Consumer -> Food and Beverage",
        "industries": [
          "Consumer",
          "Food and Beverage"
        ],
        "regions": [
          "United States of America",
          "America / Canada"
        ],
        "tags": [
          "Marketplace",
          "E-commerce"
        ],
        "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
        "website": "http://doordash.com",
        "logo": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/d13287c52acc96909f32342e85c26a33cfdac310.png",
        "former_names": [],
        "is_hiring": true,
        "top_company": true,
        "nonprofit": false,
        "launched_at": "2013-05-02"
      },
      {
        "id": "airbnb",
        "name": "Airbnb",
        "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb",
        "alias": "airbnb",
        "yc_id": 271,
        "one_liner": "Book accommodations around the world.",
        "description": "Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or fr",
        "batch": "Winter 2009",
        "status": "Public",
        "stage": "Growth",
        "team_size": 6132,
        "industry": "Consumer",
        "subindustry": "Consumer -> Travel, Leisure and Tourism",
        "industries": [
          "Consumer",
          "Travel, Leisure and Tourism"
        ],
        "regions": [
          "United States of America",
          "America / Canada"
        ],
        "tags": [
          "Marketplace",
          "Travel"
        ],
        "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
        "website": "http://airbnb.com",
        "logo": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3e9a0092bee2ccf926e650e59c06503ec6b9ee65.png",
        "former_names": [],
        "is_hiring": false,
        "top_company": true,
        "nonprofit": false,
        "launched_at": "2012-01-17"
      }
    ],
    "total_found": 6283,
    "page_count": 1,
    "blocked": false,
    "proxy_traffic_bytes": 7212
  },
  "total_points": 2
}

Integration

How to run it

The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.

Results come back in the same envelope as every other source: a session id, a readable summary, the structured result and the points charged. max_items caps how many records are returned and billed.

curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-yc-companies-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"max_items":2}'

Use cases

What teams use it for

Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.

Batch lists

Pull every company in a batch or set of batches for research or outreach lists.

Sector and region scans

Filter by industry and region, such as Fintech in Europe, and read size and status.

Hiring and growth screens

Filter to companies marked as hiring, within a team size range.

Coverage & limits

Coverage, freshness and limits

What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.

Coverage

Y Combinator records with a public page.

Freshness

Read at request time, so the answer reflects the platform as it stands when you ask.

Handling

This source returns information Y Combinator shows publicly. Every response carries the session id you can trace.

What it will not do

—Filters are applied by the directory; the source does not add its own scoring or de-duplication.
—The directory does not give funding amounts or valuations.
—Results are capped by max_items (up to 250); use start_page to continue past the first page.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Send them comma-separated, for example "Winter 2024, Summer 2024".

Related sources

Y Combinator company

One company with founders, news and launches.

Y Combinator founders search

Founders directory search.

PitchWall products search

Newest products or one topic.

All startup & funding data

Startup directories, funding databases, launch platforms and investor data.

Try y combinator companies search on your own data

One request format across every source in the catalog.

Get started