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One of Silicon Valley ’s most storied inauguration gun , Y Combinator , maintain its Winter 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday , showcasing what its latest batch of 160 inauguration are cooking up . Some of Silicon Valley ’s most successful startup — include Stripe , Airbnb , and Reddit — start out in a YC batch .
Today , YC ’s unexampled startup are rivet on building the next bighearted matter in AI . In this batch , we noticed a surprising turn of startups creating tools to heighten other companies ’ AI agents . Rather than build their own AI agent , these startups are building financial support instrument . There ’s no shortage of caller build AI agentive role tools today , but these managed to stick out from the crowd .
There are some honourable mentions that did n’t quite make this list but still managed to catch our attention . There ’s Optifye , a inauguration that ’s building package to grapple manufacturing plant workers and wasembroiled in a social controversya few weeks ago . There ’s also Artificial Societies , which runsAI simulations to screen how well your LinkedIn posts will doin a fake variant of your internet .
YC has always accepted some eye - catching companies , but here are the startups we think are deserving paying attending to in YC W25 .
Abundant
What it does : API for agentive role teleoperation
Why it ’s a fave : One of the key reasons Waymo has been successful at deploying autonomous robotaxis is because humans can remotely take over a vehicle if one ever gets stuck . Abundant took that same theme , teleoperation , and make a platform that use it to all AI agentive role . Abundant says its API reserve it to catch when an AI broker fails , and allows one of its human hustler to step in and take over .
Browser Use
What it does : get AI agent navigate web browser app
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Why it ’s a fave : coincidently , web browser Use went viral earlier this weekbecause a Chinese AI agent , Manus , used its exposed - source tool to click through site menu and sate out bod on browsers . Daily downloads quintupled to 28,000 , one of the founder told TechCrunch . As web - browsing AI agents such as OpenAI ’s Operator are direct off , internet browser Use seems to be offering a compelling undefendable source instrument that enables them .
GradeWiz
What it does : replaces tedious grading employment with AI
Why it ’s a fave : Teaching assistants ( Ta ) are the linchpin of any modern university , softly rank papers for professors and doing other oink work . But grading mint of repetitive newspaper might not be the best use of a TA ’s fourth dimension when they could be directly teaching scholarly person . Founded by Cornell TAs who openly adjudge that they “ detest place , ” GradeWiz use AI tools to automatize the task so TAs can make right use of their metre .
Misprint
What it does : Robinhood for Pokémon cards
What it ’s a fave : Misprint has a cool parentage story — its co - founding father , Eva Herget , leave office her job at Goldman Sachs to sell Pokémon cards full - fourth dimension , glance over in $ 40,000 a month . Now , Herget and her co - founding father have launch a platform for selling cards and other collectibles that allow users to treat them more like stocks , using a bidding / ask organization . It ’s not a small market : $ 3.5 billion of secondhand Pokémon cards are sold every year , Misprint order .
Nextbyte
What it does : uses AI to find the near vibe coder
Why it ’s a fave : AI - assisted “ vibe secret writing ” is all the rage , with a YC partner late saying that a quarter of YC startup havecodebases that are 95 % AI - generated . But AI - assisted coding is n’t just cheating : it ’s a acquirement in and of itself . NextByte says it help companies get the good “ vibe coders ” thanks to an AI model that powers interview questions examination coders ’ skills at leveraging AI .
Pickle
What it does : AI clone for Zoom calls
Why it ’s a fave : Who has n’t popped into a Zoom meeting for study with a bad case of bed hair or barely conceal pajama pants ? Pickle puzzle out this by letting you “ clone ” an idealistic interpretation yourself and order that much considerably - composed individual onto the screen , lip - syncing to your vocalism in tangible time . As a ( mostly ) remote team , we really hope Pickle — which says it has over 1,500 give user so far — can draw this one off .
Rebolt
What it does : AI agents to automatize eatery direction
Why it ’s a fave : We’ve work enough jobs waiting tables to get it on that grapple a restaurant is not an accurate science . handle eating house armoury is often done in Google Sheets , and involves heaps of call and netmail with suppliers . Rebolt tries to automatize some of that work with AI agents , and the company says it ’s in pricing discussions with the parent company of Burger King .
Red Barn Robotics
What it does : a Roomba for weeds on a farm
Why it ’s a fave : Weeds stamp out farms , but take out those weeds is a unmanageable task that requires deal of human labor . Founded by a former Apple computer hardware jumper cable , Red Barn Robotics claim its weeding golem , which it call “ The Field Hand , ” is 15x faster than a human being and a quarter of the cost . The company has already signed $ 5 million in LOIs for the upcoming growing season .
Retrofit
What it does : a vintage clothing market place curated by AI
Why it ’s a fave : If you ’ve ever shopped for vintage clothing online , you know that it can be an overwhelming experience . There are fate of options , and it ’s hard to assess quality . Retrofit use AI to sort through thousands of time of origin listing and create a market place based on current course . Plus , their site looks great .
Splash
What it does : autonomous patrol boat
Why it ’s a fave : liberty is hot in defense technical school right now , from Shield AI ’s “ AI fighter pilot ” toSaronic ’s planned autonomous warship factory . Splash build little patrol gravy holder that autonomously police sea borders . The startup says it has already cruise autonomously 200 miles in the San Francisco Bay Area and claims an telling 800 - mile range .
