# YC Companies Scraper (`deriverge/yc-companies-scraper`) Actor

Y Combinator companies from the public directory, with batch, status, team size, industry, tags, location and hiring flag, about 6,300 in October 2026. Filter by batch, industry, tag, region or team size, or schedule a run that returns only companies added since the last one.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/deriverge/yc-companies-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [deriverge s.r.o.](https://apify.com/deriverge) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.25 / 1,000 companies

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YC Companies Scraper

YC Companies Scraper exports the Y Combinator company directory, one row per company: name, website, one-liner and long description, batch, status, stage, team size, industry, tags, regions, office locations, launch date and whether YC marks it as hiring. It reads a daily copy of the public directory at ycombinator.com/companies, which on 11 October 2026 held 6,286 companies, the oldest from Summer 2005. The form asks for Summer 2025, so **Start** returns 50 of its companies. There is no founder field, although many descriptions name the founders. It costs $2.50 per 1,000 companies on the Free plan ($1.25 on Business), and the $5 of monthly credit in Apify's Free plan covers about 2,000 companies.

### Output fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `name`, `slug`, `url` | Company name, its slug in the directory and its directory page, such as `https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/agentmail`. |
| `website` | The company's own website. |
| `oneLiner`, `description` | The short pitch and the long text from the directory. `description` is `null` when the company wrote none or **Include the long description** is off. |
| `batch`, `batchCode` | Batch in words and as a code, `Summer 2025` and `S25`. The letters are `W`, `S`, `F` and `X` for Winter, Summer, Fall and Spring. |
| `status`, `stage` | Directory status such as `Active`, `Acquired`, `Public` or `Inactive`, and growth stage such as `Early` or `Growth`. |
| `teamSize` | Number of employees the directory lists, or `null` when the company gives none. |
| `industry`, `industries`, `subindustry` | Top-level industry such as `B2B`, the path down from it, and the same path as text: `B2B -> Infrastructure`. |
| `tags` | Tags the company picked, such as `Developer Tools`, `API` and `Email`. |
| `regions` | Regions from country up to continent group, such as `United States of America` and `America / Canada`, plus `Remote` where it applies. |
| `locations` | Offices as the directory writes them, such as `San Francisco, CA, USA`. |
| `launchedAt` | Launch date in the directory as an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp. See Limits for the early batches. |
| `isHiring` | `true` when the company has open jobs on Work at a Startup. |
| `topCompany`, `nonprofit` | Listed among YC's top companies, and marked as a nonprofit. |
| `formerNames` | Names the company used before, such as `Visibl.ai` and `Geo AI` for Bizzy AI. Empty when the name never changed. |
| `id`, `key`, `logo` | YC's numeric ID, the row key `company:<id>` that the new-only mode compares, and the small logo. |

### How to scrape YC companies

1. Enter batches in **Batches** as words (`Summer 2025`) or codes (`S25`, `W24`, `F25`, `X25` for Spring). Leave it empty for every batch.
2. Narrow by **Industries** and **Tags (any of)**. Partial names match, and industries are also looked for among the tags, so `Developer Tools` works in both fields.
3. Add any of **Status**, **Regions (any of)**, **Locations (any of)**, **Only companies that are hiring**, **Only top companies**, **Minimum team size**, **Maximum team size**, **Keywords (any of)** and **Launched after**. Keywords are searched in the name, the one-liner, the long description and the tags.
4. Switch off **Include the long description** for a compact table, and raise **Maximum rows** from the form's 50.
5. Click **Start**. The companies come newest launch first and can be downloaded from the **Output** tab as CSV, Excel or JSON.

Over the API, this input returns the hiring fintech companies of the Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 batches:

```json
{
  "batches": ["F26", "W27"],
  "industries": ["Fintech"],
  "hiringOnly": true,
  "includeLongDescription": false,
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

### Example output

AgentMail from the Summer 2025 batch, in a run on 11 October 2026.

```json
{
  "type": "company",
  "key": "company:30611",
  "id": 30611,
  "name": "AgentMail",
  "slug": "agentmail",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/agentmail",
  "website": "https://agentmail.to",
  "oneLiner": "Email Inboxes for AI Agents",
  "description": "AgentMail is the email inbox API for AI agents. It gives agents their own email inboxes, like Gmail does for humans.",
  "batch": "Summer 2025",
  "batchCode": "S25",
  "status": "Active",
  "stage": "Early",
  "teamSize": 10,
  "industry": "B2B",
  "industries": [
    "B2B",
    "Infrastructure"
  ],
  "subindustry": "B2B -> Infrastructure",
  "tags": [
    "Developer Tools",
    "API",
    "Email"
  ],
  "regions": [
    "United States of America",
    "America / Canada"
  ],
  "locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
  "launchedAt": "2025-06-27T02:11:56.000Z",
  "isHiring": true,
  "topCompany": false,
  "nonprofit": false,
  "formerNames": [],
  "logo": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5c18d385fb2e41299574abf5d25f5ba98485d781.png"
}
```

### How much does it cost to scrape YC companies?

| | Free plan | Starter | Scale | Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 companies | $2.50 | $2.00 | $1.625 | $1.25 |

You pay only for the events in the table. There is no start fee, and compute time and proxies are included.

The whole directory, about 6,300 companies, costs $15.75 on the Free plan and $7.875 on Business. Companies dropped by a filter and companies skipped in new-only mode are not charged, and the long description is included in the price.

### Limits

- The copy is refreshed once a day. The one read on 11 October 2026 had been updated at 03:00 UTC that day, and every run records the time in `datasetUpdatedAt` in its `SUMMARY` record.
- Founders are not a field, and no profile of a person is collected. The long description is the company's own text and often names the founders: at least 12 of the 155 Summer 2025 descriptions did on 11 October 2026.
- `launchedAt` is a directory date and not the founding date. All 8 Summer 2005 companies, Reddit among them, carry 17 January 2012, so **Launched after** says little about the early batches.
- `teamSize` is missing for some companies, 7 of the 166 in Summer 2025, and **Minimum team size** drops them.
- New batches show up early: on 11 October 2026 the directory already listed companies from Fall 2026 and Winter 2027, and one from Summer 2027.
- The batch and status filters need the whole value, such as `S25` or `Acquired`, while industries, tags, regions, locations and keywords also match parts of words.

### New companies in a batch

Turn on **Return only companies new since the last run**, give the run a **Watch name** such as `w27-watch` (a saved task has one already) and schedule it daily while a batch is being announced. Each run returns only companies that were missing from the previous snapshot, so every company is charged once. The `CHANGES` record also lists companies whose status, team size, hiring flag or stage changed. A company that did not fit under **Maximum rows** or the spending limit stays out of the snapshot and arrives with the next run.

### FAQ

#### Is it legal to scrape the YC company directory?

The directory at ycombinator.com/companies is public, and the actor reads yc-oss, an open copy of it on GitHub, without signing in anywhere. Each row describes a company and its public profile in the directory. You are responsible for how you use the data, including any text you republish.

#### Where are the jobs of these companies?

`isHiring` marks the companies with open roles; 67 of the 166 Summer 2025 companies had them on 11 October 2026. The roles themselves, with salaries and visa terms, come from the YC Jobs Scraper.

### Related scrapers

- [YC Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/deriverge/yc-jobs-scraper)
- [Hacker News Scraper](https://apify.com/deriverge/hacker-news-scraper)
- [Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/deriverge/tech-stack-detector)

### Support

This actor is built and maintained by deriverge s.r.o., a software company based in the Czech Republic. If a run fails or a field you need is missing, please open an issue in the **Issues** tab or write to us at info@deriverge.com. We respond in English and Czech. Runs can be scheduled in Apify Console or started from the **API** tab, which has examples for Python, JavaScript and cURL and works with Make, Zapier, n8n and the Apify MCP server. If the actor saves you time, a short review helps other people find it.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/deriverge/yc-companies-scraper/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `batches` (type: `array`):

YC batches, for example Summer 2025, Winter 2024, or the short codes S25, W24, F25, X25 (Spring). Leave empty for every batch since 2005.

## `industries` (type: `array`):

Industry or subindustry names as YC uses them, for example B2B, Consumer, Fintech, Healthcare, Developer Tools, Artificial Intelligence. Partial names match.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

YC tags, for example SaaS, Marketplace, AI, Climate, Robotics. Partial names match.

## `status` (type: `array`):

Active, Acquired, Public or Inactive. Leave empty for all.

## `regions` (type: `array`):

For example United States of America, Europe, India, Latin America, Remote. Partial names match.

## `locations` (type: `array`):

Matched against the company's location text, for example San Francisco, London, Berlin.

## `hiringOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only companies YC marks as hiring.

## `topOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only companies on YC's top companies list.

## `minTeamSize` (type: `integer`):

Drop companies with a smaller or unknown team.

## `maxTeamSize` (type: `integer`):

Drop companies with a larger team.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Keep only companies whose name, one-liner, description or tags mention at least one of these words, case-insensitive.

## `launchedAfter` (type: `string`):

Keep only companies that launched on YC after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## `includeLongDescription` (type: `boolean`):

The full company description from the YC directory. Turn it off for a compact table.

## `newOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keeps a snapshot per watch name (or per saved task) and returns only companies that were not there before. Schedule it daily during a batch and you have a new-company alert that bills only for what is new; the CHANGES record also lists status, team size and hiring changes.

## `watchName` (type: `string`):

Name of the snapshot used by the new-only mode, for example "s25-watch". Runs from a saved task get a snapshot automatically even without a name.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on returned companies.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "batches": [
    "Summer 2025"
  ],
  "hiringOnly": false,
  "topOnly": false,
  "includeLongDescription": true,
  "newOnly": false,
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `rows` (type: `string`):

One row per company with batch, status, stage, team size, industries, tags, regions, location, launch date, hiring flag, website and description.

## `changes` (type: `string`):

Companies that appeared or disappeared and changes of status, team size, hiring flag and stage, compared with the previous snapshot.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Dataset date, counts, what each filter dropped.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "batches": [
        "Summer 2025"
    ],
    "maxItems": 50
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("deriverge/yc-companies-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "batches": ["Summer 2025"],
    "maxItems": 50,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("deriverge/yc-companies-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "batches": [
    "Summer 2025"
  ],
  "maxItems": 50
}' |
apify call deriverge/yc-companies-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,deriverge/yc-companies-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/76gReLcEXCfMcDzBr/builds/YdlZD2mIAfvyjSai3/openapi.json