🚀 Y Combinator Companies Scraper

🚀 Pull 5,700+ Y Combinator-funded startups in minutes. Companies, founders, batches, industries, open jobs. No API key, no manual CSV wrangling.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-08 · 📊 30+ fields per company · 🎓 W05 to current batch · 💼 Open jobs included · 🚫 No auth required

Pull live company data from the Y Combinator directory, the canonical record of every YC-funded startup since the very first batch. The actor walks the YC catalog with your filter combination, paginates through results, fetches each company detail page, and returns one structured record per company ready for investor research, sales prospecting, lead-gen, or talent sourcing.

Every run fetches data live so you get the current state of the YC directory, not a stale dump. Records include logo URL, batch, batchName, growth stage, year founded, team size, location, founder names with bios, social handles, current job listings with salary and equity ranges, and a back-reference URL to the canonical YC profile.

👥 Built for	🎯 Primary use cases
Venture capital and angels	Track new YC batches as they launch
Sales and BD teams	Build prospect lists of YC-funded startups
Recruiters	Source candidates from YC company hiring pages
Founders and operators	Map competitor landscape and funding signals
Researchers and journalists	Study startup ecosystem trends across batches
BizDev and partnerships	Identify integration partners by industry

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📋 What the Y Combinator Companies Scraper does

• 🎓 Filter by batch. Pass batch codes like W25, S25, X25, F25 or full names.
• 🏭 Industry filters. B2B, Consumer, Healthcare, Fintech, Industrials, Real Estate, Education, Government.
• 🔬 Sub-industries. Drill down into Payments, Drug Discovery, Engineering, Product and Design, etc.
• 🌍 Region filters. USA, Europe, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, India, UK.
• 📊 Status and stage. Active, Public, Acquired, Inactive plus the YC growth stage.
• 💼 Hiring filter. Return only companies with open job listings.
• ⭐ Top Companies. Filter to YC's curated Top Companies list.

The scraper accepts any combination of these filters, builds the matching YC search URL, and walks the result pages. For each company it fetches the detail page to extract founders, social handles, job listings (with salary and equity ranges), and the full company description.

💡 Why it matters: the YC directory is the canonical record of YC-funded startups but its UI is paginated, JS-rendered, and lacks bulk export. A live, structured pull beats manual sourcing for VC research, BD outreach, and recruiting at scale.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing setup, a live run, and how to pipe results into Salesforce or Airtable via Apify integrations.

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⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Name	Description
startUrls	array	Company URLs	Specific YC company URLs (e.g. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb). When provided, all other filters are ignored.
maxItems	integer	Max Companies	Free users: limited to 10 items (preview). Paid users: optional, max 1,000,000.
query	string	Search Query	Full-text search across name, description, keywords.
batches	array	Batches	Batch codes (W25, S25, X25, F25) or full names.
industries	array	Industries	Top-level industry tags.
subindustries	array	Subindustries	Drill-down sub-industry tags.
regions	array	Regions	Geographic region filters.
companyStatus	enum	Company Status	Active, Public, Acquired, Inactive.
isHiring	boolean	Hiring Only	Only companies with open job listings.
nonprofit	boolean	Nonprofits Only	Only nonprofit YC companies.
topCompaniesOnly	boolean	Top Companies Only	Only YC's curated Top Companies list.

Example 1. Hiring fintech startups from W25, USA only.

{
  "batches": ["W25"],
  "industries": ["Fintech"],
  "regions": ["United States of America"],
  "isHiring": true,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example 2. Direct lookup of two specific YC companies.

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb",
    "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/stripe"
  ],
  "maxItems": 2
}

⚠️ Good to Know: when startUrls is set, every other filter is ignored. Use it for ad-hoc enrichment of known YC companies.

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📊 Output

The dataset returns one structured record per YC company. Each record carries identifiers, batch metadata, growth stage, location, team size, founders, social handles, open job listings, and a back-reference URL. Consume the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS via the Apify console or API.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🖼️ logoUrl	string (url)	https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/logos/abc.png
🆔 id	string	5234
🏢 name	string	Airbnb
🏷️ slug	string	airbnb
🔗 url	string (url)	https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb
🌐 website	string (url)	https://airbnb.com
📝 oneLiner	string	Book accommodations around the world
🎓 batch	string	W09
🏷️ batchName	string	Winter 2009
📊 status	string	Public
📈 stage	string	Public
🗓️ yearFounded	number	2008
👥 teamSize	number	6132
📍 location	string	San Francisco, CA, USA
🏷️ industries	array	["Travel"]
🌍 regions	array	["United States of America"]
👥 founders	array	[{"name":"Brian Chesky","title":"CEO","linkedin":"..."}]
💼 jobs	array	[{"title":"Senior Engineer","equity":"0.01-0.05%","salary":"$200K-$300K"}]
🐦 twitter	string	https://twitter.com/airbnb
💼 linkedin	string	https://linkedin.com/company/airbnb
📞 contactEmail	string	press@airbnb.com
⭐ isTopCompany	boolean	true
🤝 isNonprofit	boolean	false
📝 description	string	Airbnb is an online marketplace for...
📅 scrapedAt	ISO datetime	2026-05-08T12:00:00.000Z

📦 Sample records

1. Public top company (Airbnb)

{
  "logoUrl": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/logos/airbnb.png",
  "id": "5234",
  "name": "Airbnb",
  "slug": "airbnb",
  "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/airbnb",
  "website": "https://airbnb.com",
  "oneLiner": "Book accommodations around the world",
  "batch": "W09",
  "batchName": "Winter 2009",
  "status": "Public",
  "stage": "Public",
  "yearFounded": 2008,
  "teamSize": 6132,
  "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
  "industries": ["Consumer", "Travel"],
  "regions": ["United States of America"],
  "founders": [
    {"name": "Brian Chesky", "title": "CEO", "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/brianchesky"},
    {"name": "Joe Gebbia", "title": "Co-founder"},
    {"name": "Nathan Blecharczyk", "title": "Co-founder"}
  ],
  "twitter": "https://twitter.com/airbnb",
  "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/company/airbnb",
  "isTopCompany": true,
  "isNonprofit": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-08T12:00:00.000Z"
}

2. Hiring early-stage company (W25 batch)

{
  "logoUrl": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/logos/acme.png",
  "id": "32145",
  "name": "Acme AI",
  "slug": "acme-ai",
  "website": "https://acme-ai.com",
  "oneLiner": "AI agents for B2B back-office workflows",
  "batch": "W25",
  "batchName": "Winter 2025",
  "status": "Active",
  "stage": "Seed",
  "yearFounded": 2024,
  "teamSize": 5,
  "location": "San Francisco, CA, USA",
  "industries": ["B2B"],
  "regions": ["United States of America"],
  "founders": [
    {"name": "Jane Smith", "title": "CEO"},
    {"name": "John Doe", "title": "CTO"}
  ],
  "jobs": [
    {"title": "Founding Engineer", "equity": "0.5-2.0%", "salary": "$150K-$200K", "location": "SF (in-person)"},
    {"title": "Founding Designer", "equity": "0.3-1.0%", "salary": "$130K-$180K", "location": "SF (in-person)"}
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-08T12:00:00.000Z"
}

3. Acquired company (sparse fields)

{
  "id": "1234",
  "name": "Old Startup",
  "slug": "old-startup",
  "batch": "S15",
  "batchName": "Summer 2015",
  "status": "Acquired",
  "stage": "Acquired",
  "yearFounded": 2014,
  "isTopCompany": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-08T12:00:00.000Z"
}

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🎯	Built for the job. Scoped specifically to the Y Combinator directory so you skip the parser engineering entirely.
🔖	Structured output. Clean, typed fields ready for analysis, dashboards, or downstream pipelines.
⚡	Fast. Optimized request patterns return results in seconds, not minutes.
🔁	Always fresh. Every run pulls live data, so the dataset reflects YC as of run time.
🌐	No infra to manage. Apify handles proxies, retries, scaling, scheduling, and storage.
🛡️	Reliable. Battle-tested across many runs and edge cases, with graceful error handling.
🚫	No code required. Configure in the UI, run from CLI, schedule via cron, or call from any language with the Apify SDK.

📊 Production-grade structured startup data without the engineering overhead of building and maintaining your own scraper.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ Y Combinator Companies Scraper (this Actor)	$5 free credit, then pay-per-use	Full YC directory (5,700+)	Live per run	Batch, industry, region, stage, hiring	⚡ 2 min
Build your own scraper	Engineering hours	Full once built	Whenever you maintain it	Custom code	🐢 Days to weeks
Paid VC databases	$$$ monthly per seat	Vendor-defined	Periodic	Vendor-defined	⏳ Hours
Manual sourcing	Hours per company	Limited	Stale	Manual filter clicking	🕒 Variable

Pick this Actor when you want broad coverage, source-native filtering, and no pipeline maintenance.

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the Y Combinator Companies Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set filters. Pick batch, industry, region, and other filters, then set maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

📊 VC and investor research Track new YC batches as they launch Build watchlists by industry and stage Map founder profiles across YC cohorts Surface hiring signals as growth indicators	🏢 Sales and BD Build outbound prospect lists of YC startups Filter by hiring status to find well-funded buyers Source product partner candidates by industry Power CRM enrichment with batch and stage data
🎯 Recruiting Source candidates from YC company hiring pages Build talent pipelines by industry vertical Map technical leadership across YC alumni Track which YC companies are hiring in your stack	🛠️ Engineering and product Prototype startup-data products without owning a crawler Replace fragile in-house YC scrapers Wire datasets into your apps via the Apify API or webhooks Skip the proxy, retry, and parsing maintenance entirely

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Empirical datasets for papers, thesis work, and coursework Longitudinal studies tracking changes across snapshots Reproducible research with cited, versioned data pulls Classroom exercises on data analysis and ethical scraping	🎨 Personal and creative Side projects, portfolio demos, and indie app launches Data visualizations, dashboards, and infographics Content research for bloggers, YouTubers, and podcasters Hobbyist collections and personal trackers
🤝 Non-profit and civic Transparency reporting and accountability projects Advocacy campaigns backed by public-interest data Community-run databases for local issues Investigative journalism on public records	🧪 Experimentation Prototype AI and machine-learning pipelines with real data Validate product-market hypotheses before engineering spend Train small domain-specific models on niche corpora Test dashboard concepts with live input

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🔌 Automating Y Combinator Companies Scraper

This Actor exposes a REST endpoint, so you can drive it from any language or workflow tool.

• Node.js - call it via the Apify JS SDK.
• Python - call it via the Apify Python SDK.
• REST - hit it directly through the Apify v2 API.

Schedules. Use Apify Scheduler to run hourly, daily, or weekly snapshots. Combine with the Apify dataset diff tools to track new YC companies between runs.

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💰 How much does it cost?

Apify gives you $5 in free monthly credits on the Apify Free plan, enough to test Y Combinator Companies Scraper and pull a real sample dataset. For ongoing usage:

• Starter plan ($49/month) — Recommended for individuals running Y Combinator Companies Scraper regularly. Includes higher concurrency and larger datasets.
• Scale plan ($499/month) — Recommended for teams running Y Combinator Companies Scraper at production scale.

Pay-Per-Event pricing means you only pay for what you actually use. Failed runs are never charged. See the Pricing tab on this Actor's page for exact event prices.

💡 Tips for using Y Combinator Companies Scraper

• Start with a small maxItems (3-10) to validate output format before running larger jobs.
• Use Apify Schedules to run Y Combinator Companies Scraper on a recurring basis and keep your dataset fresh.
• Export via Integrations: Apify connects to Google Sheets, Airbyte, Make, Zapier, and direct webhooks — pipe your data anywhere.
• Monitor with webhooks: trigger downstream workflows the moment a run finishes.
• Re-run failed items: if any individual records error out, re-run with their inputs only. Failed events are not charged.

⚖️ Is it legal to use Y Combinator Companies Scraper?

Yes. Y Combinator Companies Scraper only collects publicly available data. Web scraping public data has been confirmed as legal by US courts (see hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn) and is widely used for research, market analysis, and business intelligence.

However, you are responsible for:

• Respecting the source website's Terms of Service.
• Complying with GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable data-protection laws when personal data is involved.
• Not republishing copyrighted content without permission.

If you have specific compliance concerns, consult your legal team. See the Apify legal docs for more.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🔌 Integrate with any app

Y Combinator Companies Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe results into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes. Push fresh data into your product backend or alert your team in Slack.

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🔗 Recommended Actors

• 🏢 Crunchbase Scraper - Startup company data with funding rounds and investors
• 📈 PitchBook Companies Scraper - Private company data with investors and funding
• 💼 Wellfound Jobs Scraper - Startup jobs from Wellfound (formerly AngelList)
• 📋 PitchBook Investors Scraper - Investor profiles with portfolios
• 🏢 Dun & Bradstreet Company Scraper - 500M+ business directory with DUNS

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more reference-data scrapers.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Y Combinator or any of its subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The scraper accesses only publicly available pages and is intended for legitimate research, analytics, and lead-generation use. Users are responsible for compliance with the source site's Terms of Service and applicable law.