Y Combinator Companies API Scraper

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🎯 What this scrapes

Y Combinator publishes every funded company at ycombinator.com/companies. The directory is backed by a public Algolia search index — the same one the website uses to power its filter UI. This Actor queries that index directly so you can pull the full yc companies database by free-text query, batch (e.g. W24, S23), industry tag, or status — and receive one clean dataset row per company.

No official API, no CSV download, and no bulk export exists from YC. That gap is exactly what this Actor fills.

🔥 What we handle for you

• 🌐 Optional Apify Proxy support — switch it on in the proxy setting if you want your requests routed through it. Your choice is always honoured.
• 🚨 Clear failures — if the search cannot be completed, the run fails with a clear message instead of returning an empty dataset that looks like a success.
• ✅ Genuine no-match runs succeed — a search that completes and matches nothing finishes with zero rows and a status message saying so.
• 🧊 Consistently structured dataset rows — validated fields, ISO-8601 timestamps, stable IDs, JSON / CSV / Excel export straight from the Apify Console.
• 💰 Pay per output — no Actor start fee. You pay for the output events listed in Pricing.

💡 Use cases

• Lead gen — pull every W24 Developer Tools company with website, team size, and one-liner, then enrich downstream in Clay or Apollo.
• Investor prospecting — surface YC companies in a given vertical sorted by team size to prioritise outreach.
• Hiring — track active YC companies in your city or tech stack.
• Competitive intel — schedule a weekly run, diff against last week, and catch newly-added companies the day they appear.
• Sales ops — pipe filtered YC company lists straight into HubSpot, Attio, or Smartlead as a live lead source.
• Research — build a quarterly batch report (YC W24: companies by industry, location, team size) without hand-copying rows from the directory.

⚙️ How to use it

1. Click Try for free at the top of the page.
2. Fill in the input form — most fields have sensible defaults. Start with just a batch value like W24 to pull a full batch.
3. Click Start. Output streams into the run's dataset in real time.
4. Export from Storage → Dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or pull via the Apify API into your own pipeline.

📥 Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Notes
searchQuery	string	no	''	Free-text search across company name and one-liner. Leave empty to use filters only.
batch	string	no	''	YC batch slug — e.g. W24, S23, W25. Leave empty for all batches.
industry	string	no	''	Industry tag exactly as YC uses it — e.g. Developer Tools, B2B, Fintech.
status	string	no	'any'	YC status field. Leave on any to include all companies regardless of status.
maxResults	integer	no	50	Maximum number of companies to return.
proxyConfiguration	object	no	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Proxy settings. The directory is served publicly; proxy is optional.

Example input

{
  "batch": "W24",
  "maxResults": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item. Export as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Apify Console.

Field	Type	Notes
slug	string	YC slug — used in the directory URL.
name	string	Company name.
one_liner	string | null	YC-curated one-liner pitch.
long_description	string | null	Longer YC description if the Algolia index exposes it.
batch	string | null	YC batch — e.g. W24, S23.
status	string | null	YC status — Active, Acquired, Inactive, etc.
industries	array	Industry tags as assigned by YC.
tags	array	Additional tags from the Algolia index.
regions	array	Region tags — e.g. United States, San Francisco.
location	string | null	Headquarters string.
team_size	integer | null	YC-reported team size.
website	string | null	Company website URL.
small_logo_url	string | null	Logo URL (small).
yc_url	string	Full YC directory profile URL for this company.
yc_team_link	string | null	YC founders page link.
scraped_at	string	ISO-8601 timestamp of when this row was recorded.

Example output

{
  "slug": "example-startup",
  "name": "Example",
  "one_liner": "AI-powered example builder.",
  "batch": "W24",
  "status": "Active",
  "industries": ["B2B", "Developer Tools"],
  "regions": ["United States", "San Francisco"],
  "team_size": 4,
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "yc_url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/example-startup",
  "scraped_at": "2026-06-01T12:00:00Z"
}

💰 Pricing

No Actor start fee. You pay for the output events below.

Event	USD per event	Billing unit
result	$0.003	Charged for each item written to the dataset.

1,000 output events cost $3.00 at the standard rate, with no start charge.

Existing subscriber discounts remain available in the Apify Pricing tab.

🚧 Limitations

• Algolia search ranks results — the order reflects YC's internal relevance scoring, not alphabetical or chronological.
• Founder names, bios, and full team rosters live on individual profile pages, not in the directory index. Use a follow-up Actor to fetch individual profiles if needed.
• Revenue figures, funding amounts, and valuation data are not published in the YC directory and are not in scope.
• If YC changes how its directory is served, runs may fail until the Actor is updated. A failed search is reported as a failed run, not as an empty result.

❓ FAQ

Is there an official Y Combinator companies API?

No. YC has never published an official API or export endpoint. The directory is a public Algolia index used by the ycombinator.com website — this Actor queries it and hands you the data in a structured dataset. That's the y combinator companies api gap we fill.

Can I get a YC companies CSV or Excel export?

Yes. Once the run finishes, open Storage → Dataset in the Apify Console and click Export → CSV or Export → Excel. The ycombinator companies csv export is one click with no post-processing needed.

Is this a complete YC directory export?

The Actor returns everything that Algolia exposes for the query you provide. Set maxResults high enough (or remove the cap) to pull the full yc companies database for a given batch or industry filter.

Does this need a login or YC account?

No. The directory is fully public. We query the same Algolia endpoint the ycombinator.com website uses — no credentials required.

Are founder names or emails included?

Not from the directory index. YC's Algolia data covers company metadata only — name, batch, industry, team size, website, one-liner. Founder contact information is not in the directory and is not returned.

Why are some fields null?

YC does not fill every field for every company. We surface null, never fabricate.

Can I filter by city?

Use the regions field for post-filtering. The Algolia index uses region tags (e.g. San Francisco, New York) rather than free-text city search, so filtering in your spreadsheet or downstream tool is the most reliable approach.

How do I track new YC companies added each week?

Schedule the Actor on a weekly cadence via Apify Schedules with no batch filter. Diff the output against your previous run to surface newly-added companies in the yc directory export. The scraped_at field makes deduplication straightforward.

💬 Your feedback

Spotted a bug, hit a weird edge case, or need a new field? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab in the Apify Console — we read every report.

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