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 Market Research

Fieldproxy

Seed Round in 2022
Fieldproxy helps managers within large retail and FMCG organizations to easily create and assign data collection tasks to their fieldforce

q&ai

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Q&ai gives product leaders insight into how customers think about products and messaging by analyzing their company's sales calls.

MarketForce

Seed Round in 2021
MarketForce connects Africa’s informal retail outlets and consumers directly to suppliers of consumer goods and financial services by digitizing orders, delivery, and payments with the aim of solving the last mile distribution challenge.

Anakin

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Anakin specializes in providing competitive intelligence software tailored for e-commerce retailers and brands. The company's offerings enable users to gain insights into competitor strategies by delivering real-time data on product assortments and pricing from various e-commerce platforms. Anakin's technology automates the monitoring of competitors’ sales activities, allowing businesses to efficiently gather and analyze web data at scale. By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, Anakin empowers its clients to stay informed about industry trends and make data-driven decisions in a dynamic market environment.

Measure

Seed Round in 2021
Measure provides recruitment solutions and services.

MarketForce

Seed Round in 2020
MarketForce connects Africa’s informal retail outlets and consumers directly to suppliers of consumer goods and financial services by digitizing orders, delivery, and payments with the aim of solving the last mile distribution challenge.

Prolific

Seed Round in 2019
Prolific is an online platform that facilitates ethical participant recruitment for research purposes. It connects researchers with a diverse pool of respondents worldwide, allowing for fast and reliable data collection. By enabling users to specify their target audience for surveys, Prolific ensures that researchers can gather high-quality psychological and behavioral data efficiently. The platform is designed to enhance accessibility to trustworthy data, ultimately supporting improved knowledge and decision-making in various fields.

Demand Curve

Seed Round in 2019
marketing team development

Our World In Data

Seed Round in 2019
Our World In Data is To work towards a better future, they all need to understand how and why the world has changed up to now. We must carefully measure what we care about, and let the facts and research inform our worldview.

RankScience

Seed Round in 2018
RankScience is a continuous-optimization platform that improves website SEO through automatic A/B testing and data science.

PlayingViral

Seed Round in 2018
PlayingViral re-invents content marketing like surveys and quizzes boost customer interaction. The company uses AI-powered tool to create and run interactive content marketing like surveys and quizzes. The company believes that to stand out from the crowd, one must users a unique experience. It has to be more interesting, interactive, and data-driven.

Thematic

Seed Round in 2017
Thematic Ltd. is a New Zealand-based company specializing in customer feedback analysis software. Established in 2013, Thematic offers a solution that utilizes proprietary AI algorithms to analyze unstructured data from various sources, including NPS surveys, reviews, social media, and contact center logs. By aggregating insights from this feedback, Thematic enables businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and retention through a better understanding of customer needs. The company's clientele includes notable organizations such as Manpower Group, Sky TV, Serato, SBS, and Infotools, reflecting its impact in the realm of customer experience management.

Thematic

Seed Round in 2017
Thematic Ltd. is a New Zealand-based company specializing in customer feedback analysis software. Established in 2013, Thematic offers a solution that utilizes proprietary AI algorithms to analyze unstructured data from various sources, including NPS surveys, reviews, social media, and contact center logs. By aggregating insights from this feedback, Thematic enables businesses to enhance customer satisfaction and retention through a better understanding of customer needs. The company's clientele includes notable organizations such as Manpower Group, Sky TV, Serato, SBS, and Infotools, reflecting its impact in the realm of customer experience management.

RankScience

Venture Round in 2017
RankScience is a continuous-optimization platform that improves website SEO through automatic A/B testing and data science.

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

Second Measure, Inc.

Seed Round in 2016
Second Measure is a technology company that analyzes billions of anonymized purchases to help some of the world’s largest brands and investment firms answer real-time questions on company performance and consumer behavior. We’re based in the Bay Area with an office in New York, and are proudly backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Citi Ventures, Jefferies Investment Group, Y Combinator, and other top investors.

Second Measure, Inc.

Seed Round in 2015
Second Measure is a technology company that analyzes billions of anonymized purchases to help some of the world’s largest brands and investment firms answer real-time questions on company performance and consumer behavior. We’re based in the Bay Area with an office in New York, and are proudly backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Citi Ventures, Jefferies Investment Group, Y Combinator, and other top investors.

Panorama Education

Series A in 2015
Panorama Education, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is a data analytics company focused on K-12 education. Founded in 2012, it offers a software-as-a-service platform that enables school districts, charter networks, and state governments to conduct comprehensive surveys of students, parents, teachers, and staff. The platform provides research-based surveys and delivers feedback data, allowing educators and administrators to analyze results across various demographics and school environments. By collecting feedback on individual teachers and overall school conditions, Panorama Education aims to enhance professional development and improve educator evaluation systems. The company also offers implementation consultation, technical assistance, and training to support its clients in effectively utilizing their data.

Smarking

Seed Round in 2015
Smarking Inc. is a data analytics and business intelligence software provider focused on the parking industry, offering innovative solutions for municipalities, real estate owners, and parking operators. Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, the company specializes in tools such as Business Intelligence for parking management and Automated Yield Management, which utilize historical data and real-time demand to optimize parking rates and occupancy. By leveraging predictive analytics, Smarking transforms parking data into actionable insights, enabling clients to track supply and demand effectively, enhance pricing strategies, minimize operational costs, and prevent revenue leakage. The company's mission is to modernize the $100 billion global parking industry through advanced technological solutions, fostering continuous innovation and collaboration with its customers.

MetricWire

Seed Round in 2015
MetricWire is an easy-to-use platform that allows researchers to design complex studies and provides participants with the option of responding using their smartphones and other electronic devices. With MetricWire, researchers from any industry can gather high quality data on the real-world behaviors of their study participants without writing a single line of code.

eBrandValue

Seed Round in 2015
eBrandValue launched in 2012 with the mission of helping marketers interrogate social data to increase the value of a brand. Founders Tolga and Ayse Akçura bring over forty years of marketing and financial insights, gathered from positions at some of the world’s most prestigious firms and institutions. The Akçuras are backed by a robust team of PhDs, developers, and analysts that sift through many terabytes of data to ensure the value of their client’s brands keeps rising.

Mattermark

Series A in 2014
Mattermark is a data platform that specializes in researching, prospecting, and tracking private companies for deal professionals both in the United States and internationally. Established in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, the platform offers tools for searching, filtering, and sorting private companies, enabling users to find suitable investment opportunities. Mattermark allows for side-by-side comparisons of company performance metrics and facilitates the tracking of investor portfolios with visualized aggregate data. The platform monitors various growth signals such as web traffic, mobile downloads, and social media activity. It serves a diverse clientele, including venture capital, private equity, corporate development, and sales professionals, by providing essential information for lead generation, mergers and acquisitions, and data-driven decision-making. Mattermark operates as a subsidiary of FullContact Inc. as of early 2018.

42 Technologies

Seed Round in 2014
42 Technologies, Inc. specializes in developing retail analytics and reporting solutions tailored for retail professionals, including merchandisers, planners, managers, and executives. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company focuses on simplifying and enhancing the use of retail data through its predictive analytics platform. This platform connects and consolidates various data sources, such as retail, e-commerce, inventory, and traffic, allowing users to perform detailed analyses. Key features include sales flash reports, visual item reporting, drilldown analysis, and ad-hoc reporting, all designed to help retailers identify growth opportunities and understand purchase patterns more intuitively. 42 Technologies also gained recognition by presenting at significant industry events like New York Fashion Week and TechCrunch Disrupt.

DataRank

Seed Round in 2013
DataRank, Inc. provides a social listening tool for collecting and analyzing online conversations related to the business. The company offers insights for marketers in the areas of marketing measurement, competitor benchmarking, influencer identification and outreach, market research, brand health monitoring, and crisis management aspects. It collects data from various sources, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and online reviews and forums. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As of October 13, 2015, DataRank, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Simply Measured, Inc.

WebCake

Seed Round in 2013
Marketing people modify site.

Posmetrics

Seed Round in 2013
Posmetrics provides innovative iPad-based customer feedback surveys that collect orders of magnitude more data than other technologies, provide relevant, real-time results, and generate actionable recommendations to help businesses and organizations improve their services.

Panorama Education

Seed Round in 2013
Panorama Education, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is a data analytics company focused on K-12 education. Founded in 2012, it offers a software-as-a-service platform that enables school districts, charter networks, and state governments to conduct comprehensive surveys of students, parents, teachers, and staff. The platform provides research-based surveys and delivers feedback data, allowing educators and administrators to analyze results across various demographics and school environments. By collecting feedback on individual teachers and overall school conditions, Panorama Education aims to enhance professional development and improve educator evaluation systems. The company also offers implementation consultation, technical assistance, and training to support its clients in effectively utilizing their data.

Mattermark

Seed Round in 2012
Mattermark is a data platform that specializes in researching, prospecting, and tracking private companies for deal professionals both in the United States and internationally. Established in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, the platform offers tools for searching, filtering, and sorting private companies, enabling users to find suitable investment opportunities. Mattermark allows for side-by-side comparisons of company performance metrics and facilitates the tracking of investor portfolios with visualized aggregate data. The platform monitors various growth signals such as web traffic, mobile downloads, and social media activity. It serves a diverse clientele, including venture capital, private equity, corporate development, and sales professionals, by providing essential information for lead generation, mergers and acquisitions, and data-driven decision-making. Mattermark operates as a subsidiary of FullContact Inc. as of early 2018.

mth sense

Seed Round in 2012
mth sense focuses on finding solutions to "blind" ads. mth sense offers its users an audience library to target certain demographics and psychographics.

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.

MixRank

Seed Round in 2011
MixRank tracks your customers so you don't miss an opportunity: Mobile App & SDK Intelligence: we have the most comprehensive database of mobile apps, developers, SDKs, technologies, services, and integrations. Hundreds of the top mobile technology and services vendors have used us to grow sales, react to competitors, plan market strategies, and retain customers. Web Tags & Ads Intelligence: we continuously crawl the web, detecting tags, ad campaigns, technologies, SaaS & social integrations, and much more. Identify new customers using thousands of fingerprints that predict buying behavior, market fit, and budget. Contacts & Corporate Intelligence: Our LiveScan Contacts Engine of companies and decision makers' contact information scans for new contacts and validates them in real-time so you can have confidence you're acting on fresh information. For more information about what we do, check out Mixrank.com

MarketBrief

Seed Round in 2011
MarketBrief analyzes 30,000+ trusted documents per day looking for relevant business headlines and breaking news all within fractions of a second.

DemandSphere

Seed Round in 2010
DemandSphere is the result of the evolution and growth of GinzaMetrics, an enterprise search and content marketing platform with clients around the world in a variety of organizations and roles.The changes to the marketing landscape and, by extension, the roles that marketers play, has meant constant updates to data and insight needs by our users. Where SEO, content, email, social, paid, display, offline, and other channels once lived separately there are growing connective ties between online and offline experiences, and onsite and offsite content needs.

Data Marketplace

Seed Round in 2010
Data Marketplace helps people find, buy and sell data online. It helps users seeking a specific data to creating a request for free, explain their needs, add an optional deadline and budget, and in turn allows aggregators respond with relevant data for purchase. All of the data on Data Marketplace is available for immediate purchase and download. They provide data in standard formats (e.g. Excel, CSV, XML, JSON) . Data Marketplace is funded by [Y Combinator](/organization/y-combinator).

Frogmetrics

Seed Round in 2008
Frogmetrics aggregates your data from unlimited locations, automatically finds the most important statistics, and helps you gain insights about your business from your web browser. The company wants to place touch screens in restaurants, stores, and other brick and mortar establishments that can be used to collect customer feedback on the spot. The devices ask customers a few questions at the point of sale about their experience and can collect contact information about customers to generate leads. The information gathered across physical locations is aggregated and analyzed for trends and other statistics.