Y Combinator Companies Scraper

Scrape the full Y Combinator startup directory — all 5900+ YC portfolio companies across every batch since 2005. This Y Combinator scraper (also a YC companies directory scraper and startup-research export tool) reads a daily-refreshed open mirror of YC's official directory with no auth and no API key, and exports it to CSV, JSON or Excel.

Filter by batch, industry, status, team size, location, tags or free text, and optionally enrich each company with its founders (name, role, LinkedIn, Twitter) and launch posts.

What you get

One clean row per YC company, with these fields:

• Company — id, name, slug, formerNames, ycUrl, website, logoUrl, oneLiner, longDescription
• Batch & status — batch (e.g. W26, S25), status (Active / Acquired / Inactive), launchedAt, stage, isHiring
• Classification — industry, subindustry, tags, tagsHighlighted, teamSize
• Location — allLocations, country, regions
• Founders (optional enrichment) — founders[] with name, title, bio, avatarUrl, linkedinUrl, twitterUrl
• Launches (optional enrichment) — launches[] with title, tagline, postedAt, url
• scrapedAt — ISO timestamp of extraction

Export every row as CSV, JSON or Excel (also HTML / API) — into your CRM, spreadsheet, BI tool or data pipeline.

Use cases

• VC sourcing — find recent batches in specific industries (e.g. all W26 fintech with team > 5).
• Sales prospecting — export YC startups in your target market with founder LinkedIn URLs.
• Recruiting — filter isHiring = true to find startups currently building teams.
• Competitive intel — track competitors in your YC batch and sub-industry.
• Trend research — count companies per industry or batch over time for startup-market analysis.

How to use

1. Open the actor. Leave filters empty to pull the whole directory, or set filters to narrow the result set.
2. Set maxResults (the full directory is ~6000 companies). Toggle fetchCompanyPageDetails on to add founders and launches (one extra request per company — filter first, enrich after).
3. Click Start. When the run finishes, open the Output / Dataset tab and export to CSV, JSON or Excel.

Example input:

{
  "filters": {
    "batch": "W26",
    "industry": "B2B",
    "status": "Active",
    "minTeamSize": 5,
    "location": "United States",
    "tags": ["AI"],
    "isHiring": true
  },
  "searchQuery": "agent",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "fetchCompanyPageDetails": false
}

Input fields

Field	Type	Notes
filters	object	Combined with AND. Empty = all companies.
searchQuery	string	Substring match on name + one-liner + long description.
maxResults	int	Cap returned (full directory ~6000).
fetchCompanyPageDetails	bool	+1 HTTP request per company for founders & launches.

Filter keys: batch (exact, e.g. "W26"), status (Active / Acquired / Inactive), industry (substring), subindustry, location, country, minTeamSize / maxTeamSize (range), tags (all required), isHiring.

Example output

{
  "id": 12345,
  "name": "Acme AI",
  "slug": "acme-ai",
  "batch": "W26",
  "status": "Active",
  "oneLiner": "AI agents for customer support",
  "website": "https://acme.ai",
  "ycUrl": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/acme-ai",
  "allLocations": "San Francisco, United States",
  "country": "United States",
  "industry": "B2B",
  "subindustry": "B2B -> Sales",
  "tags": ["AI", "Generative AI", "Customer Support"],
  "teamSize": 8,
  "launchedAt": "2026-02-15T00:00:00.000Z",
  "stage": "Seed",
  "isHiring": true,
  "founders": [
    { "name": "Jane Doe", "title": "CEO", "linkedinUrl": "https://linkedin.com/in/janedoe", "twitterUrl": null }
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}

FAQ

Do I need a Y Combinator login or API key?

No. The primary source is a community-maintained open mirror of YC's official directory, refreshed daily. No auth, no key, no bot detection — YC's data is intentionally public.

How fresh is the data?

The open data source is updated daily, so it is reliable for last-24h freshness. For intra-day data and breaking batch announcements, enable fetchCompanyPageDetails to scrape individual YC company pages.

Can I get founder LinkedIn and Twitter URLs?

Yes. Set fetchCompanyPageDetails = true to enrich each company with its founders[] array (name, title, bio, LinkedIn, Twitter) and launch posts. It is opt-in because it adds one request per company.

Which batches are covered?

Every batch from S05 to the latest (W26 and beyond): W{YY} = Winter, S{YY} = Summer, F{YY} = Fall, plus older cohorts like IK12 (Imagine K12).

Is this a Y Combinator companies API alternative?

Yes. There is no official public YC companies API, so this actor works as an unofficial API alternative: it reads the open YC directory mirror and returns the same data as clean, structured rows you can pull on a schedule.

How do I export the YC startup directory to CSV or JSON?

Run the actor, then open the Output / Dataset tab and export to CSV, JSON or Excel. You get one row per company, ready for your CRM, spreadsheet or data pipeline.

Can I scrape Y Combinator without login?

Yes. YC's directory is public, so no login, API key or cookie is required. The actor pulls a daily-refreshed open mirror of the official directory with no auth and no bot detection.

Changelog

2026-06-07

• Docs: added coverage for YC companies API alternative, exporting the YC startup directory to CSV/JSON, and scraping Y Combinator without login.