Y Combinator Companies Scraper

Search and export public Y Combinator company profiles by batch, industry, tag, region, hiring status, and keyword.

Use this actor to turn the YC company directory into a clean startup dataset for lead generation, market mapping, recruiting, investment research, and enrichment pipelines. Results can be downloaded as CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, RSS, or used through the Apify Dataset API.

At a glance

• Startup lead lists: Export YC company names, websites, YC profile URLs, batches, one-liners, locations, industries, tags, team size, and status.
• Focused filters: Combine keyword search with batch, industry, tag, region, hiring, and launch-status filters.
• Founder context: Enable profile details when you need founder names and public social links from individual YC profile pages.
• Market maps: Compare YC companies by category, geography, batch, and hiring signal.
• API-ready data: Feed structured startup rows into CRMs, spreadsheets, BI tools, agents, or enrichment workflows.

Ready-to-run examples

Open an example, review the input, and run it as-is or adjust the filters:

• YC AI Startups - Recent Batch: Export recent AI-focused YC companies.
• YC Companies Hiring Now: Build a list of public YC companies currently marked as hiring.
• YC Developer Tools Profile Details: Collect developer-tools companies with profile enrichment enabled.
• YC Fintech Company Dataset: Create a fintech-focused startup dataset.

What can it do?

Y Combinator Companies Scraper reads public YC company directory data and saves one dataset row per matching company.

• Search the directory: Use query for names, one-liners, descriptions, tags, and related public fields.
• Filter by YC attributes: Narrow results by batch, industries, tags, regions, isHiring, or launchStatus.
• Control result volume: Set maxItems to keep test runs small or scale up for larger exports.
• Add profile details: Turn on includeProfileDetails when founder names and public founder links are worth the slower run.
• Export repeatably: Schedule the actor to refresh startup lists or category maps over time.

Common workflows

• Sales prospecting: Find YC companies in a market such as AI, fintech, devtools, healthcare, or marketplaces.
• Recruiting research: Filter for hiring companies by region or batch and export the list to a sourcing workflow.
• Investor mapping: Compare cohorts, industries, stages, and regions for thesis or pipeline research.
• Competitive intelligence: Track companies in a category and monitor new batches as they appear.
• Data enrichment: Use YC URLs and websites as stable join keys for downstream enrichment.

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay a small run-start fee plus a per-company charge for saved dataset rows.

Event name	Price from actor.json	Charged when
start	$0.005 per run	Once when the actor starts.
result	FREE $0.000032557; BRONZE $0.000028311; SILVER $0.000022082; GOLD $0.000016986; PLATINUM $0.000011324; DIAMOND $0.000007927	Each YC company record saved to the dataset.

On BRONZE, result pricing is about $0.028311 per 1,000 saved company records. Start with a small maxItems value, review the output, then scale up.

Input configuration

Setting	JSON key	Use it for
Search query	query	Search YC company names, one-liners, descriptions, tags, and related public fields. Leave empty to browse by filters only.
Maximum companies	maxItems	Cap the number of company records saved to the dataset.
YC batch	batch	Match an exact YC batch, such as Summer 2024, Winter 2025, or Spring 2025.
Industries	industries	Match YC industries such as B2B, Consumer, Fintech, Healthcare, or Industrials.
Tags	tags	Match YC tags such as SaaS, AI, Developer Tools, Fintech, or Marketplace.
Regions	regions	Match YC regions such as United States of America, America / Canada, Europe, South Asia, Remote, or Partly Remote.
Only hiring companies?	isHiring	Set to true for hiring companies, false for not-hiring companies, or leave empty for both.
Launch status	launchStatus	Filter by status such as Active, Public, Acquired, or Inactive.
Include profile details	includeProfileDetails	Visit each public company profile to add founder names and public social links. This is slower than directory-only mode.

Example input

{
  "query": "AI",
  "batch": "Summer 2024",
  "regions": ["United States of America"],
  "isHiring": true,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeProfileDetails": true
}

Example output

{
  "id": "29798",
  "name": "&AI",
  "slug": "ai-2",
  "url": "https://www.tryandai.com/",
  "ycUrl": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ai-2",
  "batch": "Summer 2024",
  "oneLiner": "Collaborative workspace for patent litigators",
  "website": "https://www.tryandai.com/",
  "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
  "industry": "B2B",
  "tags": ["SaaS", "B2B", "LegalTech"],
  "isHiring": false,
  "teamSize": 13,
  "status": "Active",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-14T13:09:21.870Z"
}

Output fields

Field	Description
name	Company name.
batch	YC batch associated with the company.
oneLiner	Short public company description.
website	Public company website URL.
location	Public location text from YC.
industry	Primary YC industry.
subindustry	More specific YC subindustry when available.
tags	Public YC tags associated with the company.
isHiring	Whether YC marks the company as hiring.
teamSize	Public team-size value when available.
status	Public company status.
stage	Public stage value when available.
ycUrl	Public YC company profile URL.
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the row was saved.

Tips for best results

• Start small: Use maxItems: 25 while testing a new filter combination.
• Use exact batch names: Batch filters work best with full values such as Summer 2024.
• Combine filters: Pair query with regions, tags, or isHiring for focused lists.
• Profile details cost time: Enable includeProfileDetails only when founder fields matter.
• Schedule snapshots: Run the same input regularly to monitor a category or batch over time.

API and integrations

• Use the Apify API or SDK to run the actor from Node.js, Python, cURL, Make, Zapier, or your own agent workflow.
• Export datasets as CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, RSS, or stream rows through the Dataset API.
• Join YC company rows with enrichment actors using website or ycUrl.
• Use the actor as a lightweight YC company data API for dashboards and prospecting tools.

MCP and AI agents

Use the official Apify MCP server when you want AI tools to run this Actor directly.

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/y-combinator-companies-scraper

Example prompt: "Find YC companies in AI developer tools that are hiring, then return websites, batches, founder names, and YC profile URLs."

Limits and responsible use

• The actor extracts public YC company data. It does not access private YC accounts or non-public records.
• Founder and social fields depend on what is visible on each public company profile.
• Very broad searches can take longer, especially with includeProfileDetails enabled.
• Review and use exported data in line with Apify's Terms of Service and applicable privacy rules.

Related actors

• Yahoo Finance Stock Data Scraper for market and ticker datasets.
• Google News Scraper for public news monitoring around companies or categories.
• LinkedIn Jobs Scraper for hiring-demand signals.
• Website Contact Finder for public contact enrichment from company websites.
• Reddit Scraper for market conversations around startup categories.

FAQ

Can I scrape all YC companies? Yes. Leave query empty, use filters as needed, and set maxItems high enough for your export.

Does it include founder data? Enable includeProfileDetails to fetch founder names and public founder links from company profile pages when available.

Can I export to CSV or Excel? Yes. Apify datasets support CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, RSS, and API access.

Can I schedule a monitor? Yes. Save an input as a task and schedule it in Apify to refresh a market map or lead list.

Changelog

• 0.1: Initial public version for YC company directory search, filtering, profile enrichment, dataset export, and pay-per-result pricing.