Cluster trends across YC batches
Share of each cluster among classified YC companies, W15 to F26. Bars are batch shares; Δ compares the last two batches with the two before them. Batches with fewer than 20 classified companies are omitted.
Right column: total classified companies per cluster in this range. Hover a bar for exact counts. Data: YC public directory, classified into a fixed taxonomy.
Words being born
Two-word phrases from company one-liners that barely existed before and several companies now use. Vocabulary moves before cluster shares do - this is the earliest trend signal the directory can give.
Theme mix by accelerator
Share of each cluster inside each program's 2024+ intake. Where a theme is YC-only versus already spread across every program tells you how far the wave has diffused.
| Cluster | YC | Techstars | PnP | antler | speedrun | 500 | ef | alchemist | spc | SOSV | skydeck | seedcamp | aigrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical AI agents | 29.1% | 8.4% | 10.3% | 20.9% | 26.2% | 12.4% | 30.5% | 25.4% | 14.6% | 1.2% | 16.9% | 28.8% | 30.6% |
| Healthcare and bio | 3.9% | 15.4% | 13.7% | 6.7% | 3.1% | 6.2% | 10.4% | 9.3% | 7.3% | 20.7% | 8.5% | 11.5% | 2.8% |
| Robotics and physical world | 7.5% | 8.0% | 14.2% | 5.8% | 2.8% | 4.7% | 7.8% | 5.9% | 10.4% | 24.4% | 10.2% | 3.8% | 8.3% |
| Agent infrastructure | 13.9% | 1.5% | 3.7% | 5.4% | 9.5% | 1.6% | 3.9% | 5.1% | 12.5% | - | 10.2% | 9.6% | 19.4% |
| Consumer | 5.0% | 7.6% | 3.5% | 10.5% | 30.8% | 14.0% | 3.9% | - | 12.5% | 3.7% | 1.7% | 1.9% | 2.8% |
| B2B SaaS | 5.6% | 6.3% | 8.9% | 13.9% | 1.8% | 11.4% | 3.9% | 11.0% | 7.3% | - | 8.5% | 5.8% | 8.3% |
| Fintech | 5.3% | 10.2% | 8.6% | 9.1% | 4.0% | 10.9% | 7.1% | 1.7% | 2.1% | - | 5.1% | 3.8% | - |
| Climate and energy | 1.2% | 9.0% | 13.4% | 4.4% | 0.3% | 5.7% | 2.6% | 5.1% | 2.1% | 29.3% | 5.1% | 3.8% | - |
| Developer tools | 8.1% | 1.7% | 1.2% | 3.2% | 4.0% | 5.2% | 6.5% | 13.6% | 4.2% | 1.2% | 1.7% | 3.8% | 2.8% |
| Other | 0.2% | 16.4% | 2.8% | 1.2% | - | 4.7% | 1.9% | 1.7% | - | 9.8% | 6.8% | 1.9% | 2.8% |
Programs with fewer than 30 classified 2024+ companies are excluded - their shares would be noise.