Y Combinator

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator based in Mountain View, California, founded in 2005. It has pioneered a new funding model for early-stage startups by investing a modest amount of capital, typically around $150,000, in a large number of companies twice a year. Over a three-month program, Y Combinator collaborates closely with these startups to prepare them for investor pitches and enhance their business strategies. Each funding cycle concludes with Demo Day, where startups present to an exclusive audience of investors. Y Combinator focuses on various sectors, including business software, education, healthcare, and financial technology, among others. In addition to initial funding, it offers ongoing support through its extensive alumni network. Since its inception, Y Combinator has funded over 630 startups, contributing significantly to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Gustaf Alstromer

Group Partner

Matt Bogrand

Associate, YC Continuity Fund

Timothy Brady

Partner

Craig R. Cannon

Director of Marketing

Adora Cheung

Partner

Nic Dardenne

Principal

Aaron Epstein

Group Partner

Brad Flora

Group Partner

Jared Friedman

Managing Director, Software and Group Partner

Aaron Harris

Partner

Carolynn Levy

Partner

Bradford (Brad) Lightcap

Associate, YC Continuity

Kat Manalac

Managing Partner

Eric Migicovsky

Partner

Kirsty Nathoo

Partner

Verena Prescher

Director of Finance

Geoff Ralston

president

Ali Rowghani

Managing Partner

Arnav Sahu

Principal

Michael Seibel

Managing Director

Harj Taggar

Partner

Past deals in Advertising

Front Page

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Front Page is helping transform ambitious brands through effective, engaging design.

Plai

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Digital marketing is just a few taps away. Discover micro-influencers and new keywords for your brand. Create and launch expert Google Ads and YouTube Ads in minutes. Get the answers you need, fast from Google Analytics and more with voice command. No marketing experience required or technical mumbo-jumbo. Plai is easy to set up with a few taps, and available on the go. It's like having a full-cycle marketing team in your pocket! Stay informed Plai provides tools to help you market. Before creating a marketing campaign or even a social post, you can access trending content in your niche, discover relevant keywords, and learn the latest marketing strategies. Grow your brand Our tools, services, and information are built to be intuitive and accessible for everyone — newcomers and experts alike. Plai uses cutting-edge marketing strategies to help brands create and optimize their digital marketing campaigns in just a few taps.

Measure

Seed Round in 2021
Measure provides recruitment solutions and services.

TagMango

Seed Round in 2020
TagMango Private Limited is a Kolkata-based company that operates a platform designed to facilitate marketing and advertising through influencer partnerships. Established in 2019, TagMango enables influencers to transform their followers into brand marketers by offering customizable courses and personalized experiences. The platform features a diverse range of celebrities and influencers who can be engaged for creating video messages and conducting workshops, allowing brands to execute cost-effective online campaigns. Through this innovative approach, TagMango supports both influencers and brands in enhancing their digital marketing efforts and reaching wider audiences.

Parade

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Parade’s software creates unique branded marketing materials automatically. Companies use our product to instantly generate a style guide, marketing emails, social media posts, and more, all without a human in the loop.

Allscreen

Seed Round in 2020
Allscreen distributes branded video content to places like Twitter, CNN, Fox, and Facebook to help build an audience for advertisers and publishers.

Taiv

Seed Round in 2020
Taiv Inc. designs content and advertisements that matches the brand. Its web app allows users to make changes to content or schedule. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Winnipeg, Canada.

TagMango

Pre Seed Round in 2020
TagMango Private Limited is a Kolkata-based company that operates a platform designed to facilitate marketing and advertising through influencer partnerships. Established in 2019, TagMango enables influencers to transform their followers into brand marketers by offering customizable courses and personalized experiences. The platform features a diverse range of celebrities and influencers who can be engaged for creating video messages and conducting workshops, allowing brands to execute cost-effective online campaigns. Through this innovative approach, TagMango supports both influencers and brands in enhancing their digital marketing efforts and reaching wider audiences.

Demand Curve

Seed Round in 2019
marketing team development

BearBuzz

Seed Round in 2019
BearBuzz is a performance-based content ad network for YouTube, Twitch, and Podcasts. BearBuzz builds an influencer marketplace that moves things along much more quickly than today’s negotiation slog. The company aims to standardize ad formats and can automatically verify the video ads via image and voice recognition. The team plans to make money by facilitating quicker connections and taking 25% of adspend.

AALO

Seed Round in 2018
AALO BD LTD is a digital media technology startup based in Dhanmondi, Bangladesh, founded in 2018. The company specializes in providing digital advertising and promotion services for businesses, government organizations, and individuals. AALO offers a range of services, including creative planning, content production, public relations, and media planning. Notably, the company enhances brand visibility by running advertisements on transport vehicles through the installation of monitors. Additionally, AALO develops applications that facilitate digital advertising tools, aiming to improve brand awareness and customer engagement for its clients.

Bulletin

Seed Round in 2017
Bulletin, Inc. is a wholesale marketplace that connects individual designers and brands with retailers, facilitating the sale of a diverse range of products online, including home decor, kitchen items, bedding, furniture, lighting, jewelry, and cards. In addition to its online platform, Bulletin also provides shared storefronts and utilizes vacant commercial spaces to showcase and sell the works of emerging designers in person. Founded in 2015 and based in New York, Bulletin aims to create a community that supports premium brands while offering a unique shopping experience.

Marketfox

Seed Round in 2017
Marketfox is designed to help your small and medium business manage every aspect of your company, from lead management to marketing and reporting of financials

Permutive

Venture Round in 2015
Permutive, Inc. is a publisher-focused data management platform that specializes in developing an ad-server for sponsored content. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, with an additional office in New York, the company offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that enables publishers to enhance their targetable advertising capabilities and improve return on investment. Permutive also creates custom ad formats tailored to the needs of its clients, positioning itself as a key player in the advertising technology sector.

Automate Ads

Seed Round in 2015
On a mission to automate, optimize, and unify your digital advertising campaigns with incredible software.

Kuhcoon

Seed Round in 2015
Operator of a cloud based online advertising platform intended to create ad campaigns. The company's cloud based online advertising platform manages and creates ad campaigns using Facebook, automates the workflow of digital advertisers and optimizes their ad spend on the internet using big data, enabling companies to create ad campaigns and acquire and retain more customers.

Permutive

Seed Round in 2014
Permutive, Inc. is a publisher-focused data management platform that specializes in developing an ad-server for sponsored content. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, with an additional office in New York, the company offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that enables publishers to enhance their targetable advertising capabilities and improve return on investment. Permutive also creates custom ad formats tailored to the needs of its clients, positioning itself as a key player in the advertising technology sector.

MotionLead

Seed Round in 2014
Motionlead empowers advertisers and publishers to reach their audience through a unique advertising experience thanks to transparent, animated and interactive ads that come on top of native and web apps without stopping user navigation

WebCake

Seed Round in 2013
Marketing people modify site.

LeanMarket

Seed Round in 2012
LeanMarket is a developer of a mobile advertisement platform that focuses on optimizing advertising placements for users. The platform allows clients to automatically bid on advertisement impressions without the need for sales representatives or long-term commitments. Users can make payments via credit card, facilitating a straightforward transaction process. LeanMarket provides in-depth customer behavior reports, enabling advertisers to create targeted campaigns that maximize performance and effectiveness. Through its advertising optimization network, LeanMarket aims to simplify the advertising process, making it accessible and efficient for businesses looking to enhance their marketing strategies.

TapEngage

Seed Round in 2011
TapEngage is a startup that enables advertisers and publishers to collaborate on tablet-optimized advertising.

Newslabs

Seed Round in 2010
NewsLabs offers a platform that looks to help "old school" journalists adapt to the web, by giving them help with advertising, SEO, and other issues they may not have had to deal with before.

FanChatter

Seed Round in 2009
FanChatter fuels your fans so they can promote you better than any ad ever could. Our customers are big guys (NBC Universal, Clear Channel, Gannett) and little guys (bloggers all over the world) who pay us to source and showcase the most abundant yet least leveraged marketing material on the planet... Pure, voluntary social chatter about your interest. FanChatter offers you the tools to find it, refine it, and make it multiply. And that is the future of advertising.

Airtime

Seed Round in 2005
Airtime allows companies to market their products in their email signatures.