11 Startups from YC Demo Day Investors Are Buzzing About
Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 Demo Day showcased a plethora of AI-driven startups, signaling a strong trend toward AI-centric solutions. Held on Wednesday, the event highlighted companies developing AI agents and tools to facilitate their creation. Many founders are drawing inspiration from successful AI startups, with numerous presenting variations of “Cursor for X,” such as Den’s “Cursor for knowledge workers” and Vessence’s “Cursor for lawyers.”
Beyond AI, robotics startups also garnered attention, indicating a potential revival in the field. Here are some of the startups that captured the interest of investors and observers alike:
Anvil
What it does: SEO for LLMs
Why it’s a fave: Anvil addresses the evolving landscape of content discovery, where AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are increasingly used for search. It helps brands measure, optimize, and enhance their visibility on these AI platforms.
Atum Works
What it does: Builds 3D chips
Why it’s a fave: Atum Works is innovating in chip design by stacking transistors in three dimensions to increase processing power, a revolutionary approach that could potentially position them as the next NVIDIA.
Auctor
What it does: Automates enterprise software implementation
Why it’s a fave: Auctor is already gaining traction among prominent software vendors like SAP, ServiceNow, AWS, and Box, who are interested in using its solution for software integration.
Cactus
What it does: AI copilot for solopreneurs
Why it’s a fave: Cactus aims to alleviate the workload of solopreneurs by offering an AI bot that can handle tasks such as answering calls and processing payments.
Den
What it does: Cursor for enterprise knowledge workers
Why it’s a fave: Den is considered a standout company in this YC batch, offering AI agents that can replace Slack and Notion, tailoring software interactions to specific enterprise needs.
Eloquent AI
What it does: Automates customer operations with AI
Why it’s a fave: Eloquent AI automates customer service tasks for financial services companies, such as unfreezing bank accounts or adding drivers to insurance policies, eliminating the need for human intervention and lengthy wait times. The startup has already raised a large seed round.
LLM Data Company
What it does: Tooling for evaluation and reinforcement learning
Why it’s a fave: LLM Data Company addresses the challenge of evaluating AI tool quality, offering LLMs that can assess AI agent performance and is currently working with customers like Perplexity.
Scalar Field
What it does: AI-powered Bloomberg terminal
Why it’s a fave: Scalar Field is developing AI agents to manipulate financial data with greater flexibility than existing tools, aiming to enhance financial analysis and decision-making.
Sygaldry
What it does: Quantum accelerated AI servers to speed up AI training and inference
Why it’s a fave: Sygaldry is focused on quantum-accelerated AI servers to enhance AI training and inference speeds, led by Chad Rigetti, who previously founded Rigetti Computing and took it public.
Vybe
What it does: Vibe coding to build applications
Why it’s a fave: Vybe enables the creation of various tools through vibe coding, impressing investors with its app-building capabilities and being called a “clear winner” of the batch.
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