Automation Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2026

Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company. We design custom organisms for customers across multiple markets. We build our foundries to scale the process of organism engineering using software and hardware automation. Organism engineers at Ginkgo learn from nature to develop new organisms that replace technology with biology.

Founded in 2011, Zapier is the #1 workflow automation platform for small and mid-sized businesses. By connecting more than 6,000 of the most popular work apps, Zapier empowers its users to make the most of the tools they already use—and to focus on what matters most.

Like ChatGPT or Claude, but it runs in the cloud, remembers everything you give it, and comes loaded with skills. Hand it a job tonight and read the answer in the morning. Use it on your own, or with your whole team.

Instead of making users learn a timeline, we let them upload footage, describe what they want, and get back a polished edit in minutes.

Shepherd Robotics builds general purpose robots for skilled physical work across AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing. Our robots are powered by robot foundation models and use modular, flexible hardware designed to adapt to different environments and tasks. We train our systems on a combination of real world and simulation data so they can learn complex manipulation skills and generalize across workflows. We are starting with tasks such as data center construction and operations, cable and wire manufacturing, wire harness assembly, kitting, and factory packaging, where traditional automation struggles with variability, dexterity, and changing environments.

OnePatch is a forward-deployed AI SRE. It instruments your services, watches how they actually behave in prod, catches incidents, and drives each one to resolution. Think Datadog, except it doesn't stop at telling you something broke: it keeps going until the fix is shipped.

Tenor enables domain experts to build, run, and scale AI-native service businesses. The next generation of successful white-collar service businesses will be built and scaled around AI from the ground up. These companies need more than capable AI models. They need a company data layer, governed workflows that AI can execute, and harnesses that continuously improve based on outcomes and decision checkpoints. Tenor is building this infrastructure so millions of AI-native businesses don’t have to build it themselves.

Agency Tool Company ships software to robots in the field 20x faster than a Docker pull with ATC Deploy, sending only the bytes that changed and resuming when the network drops. Deployment tooling is the connection between the lab & the field that continually bottlenecks robotics scaling and lacks a strong robotics-native solution. Deploy is live today with 3 launch partners across ag, construction, and logistics robotics. Our second product, ATC Build, offers embedded-compute as a CI service so devs can run tests and validate their software on the actual target hardware. Build supports the Nvidia Jetson lineup, Raspberry Pi, and a number of other embedded platform targets. Jack Morrison and Davis Foster founded and sold Scythe Robotics after deploying hundreds of autonomous mowers across the country; Agency Tool Company is building the robotics deployment platform across hardware and software they wish they had. Learn more at https://agencytool.com

Derya deploys supply chain automations for startups, SMEs, and enterprises that fulfil their entire supply chain function, from prospecting and procurement to distribution of goods. Our mission is to rebuild the supply chain from the ground up, turning one of the world’s hardest coordination problems into an AI native system that moves commodities by being integrated into both the supply chain infrastructure and the customer. We work across robotics, commodities, and food & beverages companies; procuring goods and managing various operation functions for them.

Neuron is crafting the world’s first purpose-built industrial controller for AI, replacing the antiquated PLCs running every machine and factory. We help customers from chemical processing to nuclear reactors compress controls projects from weeks to hours.

Hey YC! We're Bizmark. I (Rodrigo) grew up in a factory, watching my mum run everything through Excel and email. That’s why we’ve built Otto, the OpenClaw for manufacturers. In a few days, he learns from your systems and spreadsheets to take over repetitive work in procurement, quoting, and production planning. Otto is live at multiple factories, bringing in $108k in annual recurring revenue. Last month, he worked the equivalent of 9 full-time employees. I did CS at UChicago and built a distribution business from 0 to $60M. My cousin and cofounder Oscar did CS at Stanford and deployed AI for the US Air Force, Amazon, and the factories of Johnson & Johnson and Intel. There's a quarter of a million manufacturers in the US, making this a $25B market. In 5 years, they will all run on Otto-pilot.

Rapidfolio helps banks and fintechs fully automate back-office workflows like fraud investigations, KYB/KYC and loan underwriting, with accuracy and auditability. Built by fintech founders and operators, Rapidfolio is on a mission to ensure banks and fintechs scale their customer base without adding another back-office head count.

We build AI systems for law firms, trained on each firm's own matters and deployed privately in their environment: timekeeping, intake and matter monitoring, research, discovery, and drafting. Our grounding engine verifies every fact against a primary source before a model can cite it, which is why firms trust us with work that off-the-shelf legal AI keeps getting wrong.

Insurf is the AI-native data and decision layer for health insurance. Our model Surely identifies the lowest-cost coverage for anyone, saving individuals, families, and companies thousands per employee. Our product Inveto collects the data from hospitals and clinics that informs Surely.

I run Enjamb. We've worked with 130 life science companies, preclinical through phase 3, to deploy AI securely inside the systems they already work in. Pharma runs on decades of closed software like Benchling, Veeva, Medidata, and SAS. None of it has an AI layer or speaks MCP, so agents cannot reach the systems where the work lives. Enjamb is that layer. Our agents run on top of existing systems and data, with no migration, and they reach the lab systems and internal tools no other AI touches. They learn how a team works, then do the work in Slack, in Teams, and in the systems themselves, across preclinical research, clinical evidence, trial design, statistical programming, and regulatory submissions. This is AI tailored for how medicine gets made.

Describe an experiment in plain English, and Infera turns it into a validated, instrument-ready run across the equipment your lab already uses. Infera handles the protocol logic, vendor-specific scripts, data, inventory, and institutional knowledge in one system. An AI-native compiler for the lab: one system from intent to execution.

Tenet Industries is building AI-automated factories for manufacturing of PCBAs. We're using AI and robotics to build a factory in München for instant-quote, fast-turnaround PCBA manufacturing and electronic manufacturing services.

We deploy robots in warehouses to automate the most demanding job in logistics: unloading loose-loaded containers. Our customers include 3PLs (CEVA, Stord), distributors (DHL, PostNL) and many more logistics companies.

RamAIn can intelligently automate any super complex and repetitive process across applications (Browser & Desktop) super fast. It doesn’t matter whether you have API access or not - if you can see it, RamAIn can do it. Simply chat with it and get your UI task as a composable API - fully managed, self-healing and self-evolving!

Bubble Lab helps event organizers and professional communities turn a room full of people into meaningful connections. We help them understand who’s in the room, identify who should meet, make the introduction, and remember those relationships for the next event. Attendee enrichment, matchmaking, searchable member directories, applications, payments, Luma and Slack sync, onboarding, and analytics all live in one place, so a single operator can run better gatherings and build a smarter community over time.

Robotic factories that build robotics in the US. Currently operating a 12,000 sqft factory in the Bay Area and actively manufacturing customer orders for some of the largest robotics companies in the US and the International Space Station. We’re a group of Berkeley graduate robotics researchers who previously won a full scale autonomous IndyCar competition at 160mph.

item connects to all your customer tools, gathers and enriches context automatically, and becomes your company’s source of truth — one place where your team and your AI agents share the full picture to act autonomously. At the center is the Assistant — your sidekick for daily work. It can send follow-ups, research leads, or add deals with a simple prompt. No complex UI, drop-downs or fields, simply ask. For repeatable work, you build Agents that you can train like new hires, simply by writing documents that describe your processes. item Agents run business processes across sales, support, and account management autonomously.

If you’ve got a lot to do, we believe AI can make things feel doable. Caddy is our core product: a Personal AI that helps you stay on top of everything going on. All you have to do is text. On overwhelming days, it’s super simple to just drop any task in a text thread, and Caddy will help you handle it. Caddy also keeps an eye on your calendars, chats and tasks to make sure you stay focused on what matters. If something needs you, Caddy will nudge you, or can just do it if you don’t have time. The best part is, no two Caddys are alike. The more you use Caddy, the more it learns your vibe, how you work, and what you care about. 

Aside is an AI browser that completes real work across the websites you already use. It can sign in through your browser, work inside email, dashboards, internal tools, docs, and spreadsheets, and keep going when a task takes minutes or hours. Unlike agents that depend on integrations, Aside uses the web the way you do. Browsing history becomes local memory, so it knows which tools and context matter. Its password manager lets agents autofill credentials without exposing secrets to the AI. Sensitive actions like payments, posts, and messages wait for your approval. We achieved state-of-the-art on agentic browsing benchmarks, surpassing OpenAI and Anthropic's result- Aside ranked #1 across Mind2Web, Odyssey, bu-bench-v1.

Bravi helps manufacturers of windows, doors, and other home improvement products turn fragmented technical and commercial data into tools their teams can use instantly. Our AI platform helps sales, customer service, and field teams answer technical questions, configure complex products, generate quotes, and retrieve order information by connecting to existing documentation, catalogs, ERP, CRM, and pricing systems. Bravi is already live with leading installers and manufacturers across Europe and the US, turning missed demand into revenue.

Lark lets teams write end-to-end tests in plain English. Validate dashboards, APIs, SDKs, and full product flows without maintaining fragile test code. Run continuously on feature branches, in CI, or in production.

Nottelabs offers a platform to build and deploy enterprise-grade browser agents. We help companies cut costs and save time by automating repetitive tasks. Unlike others, we provide agents, tools, and infrastructure through a single API, making us the fastest path to reliable web AI agents in production.

AI that helps you fly through your inbox.

Teach robots new skills through natural language and run reliably in production in minutes. Mbodi combines generative AI and agent orchestration, turning everyday language and quick demos into precise, reliable robot actions for industrial automation.

At Moby Analytics, we provide the first AI agentic platform built for financial auditors. Auditors easily create and deploy AI agents to automate audit workflows. No code, just prompts and domain expertise.

throxy builds custom vertical AI agents and pairs them with human SDRs and ultra personalised email sequences to book meetings for B2B software companies selling into traditional industries (e.g. manufacturing, logistics, construction, supply chain) Outbound is broken. Generic automation gets ignored and decision-makers in legacy sectors are hard to reach. Most of your TAM isn't even on LinkedIn, and tools like Clay, Apollo, and ZoomInfo only cover about 65% of the market. throxy fixes this by running bespoke, fully managed outbound systems for software sales teams trying to crack these industries. We use proprietary scraping tools to map your entire addressable market, then combine AI agents with human experts to deliver hyper-personalised email campaigns and human cold calling that is consistently generating six-figure qualified pipelines. Since 2023, throxy has powered outbound for B2B software companies, from industrial SaaS to fintech providers, replacing the need for internal SDR teams or stacks of tools with a solution that outperforms on both speed and quality. Today, we have a team of 55 across London and Cape Town, booking on average 8 to 12 qualified meetings per month per client, with some clients seeing 20+ in their first weeks after we doubled down on human-led cold calling. AI handles the data: building custom databases, scoring leads against your ICP, and personalising outreach at scale. Humans handle the conversations: real cold calls, real emails, real relationships. That's the difference between us and every AI SDR on the market. Our founding team has built AI at JP Morgan, scaled businesses from age 14, and led enterprise sales from Seed to Series D. We're not just automating outbound, we're redefining what sales execution looks like for software companies selling into traditional industries. throxy is the "AI SDR" purpose-built for the sectors software forgot.

We build robots for physical AI. Meet Axol - A dual-arm robot designed for real-world tasks using AI.

We’re building AI-powered systems that automate manual work in scientific labs using robotics. Scientists simply type their experiment in plain English. Zeon translates it into code and runs it on robotic arms (no coding required). By controlling robots with natural language, we’re enabling automation for every lab, every scientist, and every experiment. Zeon is lab-aware. It detects equipment, adapts to protocols, and moves autonomously between instruments to execute full workflows. We’re already working with labs at Stanford and UCSF to accelerate discovery - from running overnight nanoparticle fluorescence measurements to safely disposing of hundreds of bacterial samples. Zeon reclaims time for what matters most: the science.

Lucidic is trying to find a new paradigm to teach models. The last decade made models intelligent, but intelligence is not the same as experience. Humans do not get better by memorizing thousands of examples; we build learning systems around ourselves: skills, memories, critique, practice, tools, and guidance. And every person learns differently because every task is different. Lucidic brings that idea to AI agents by training a custom learning system for each agent, so it learns what to remember, what skills to build, when to ask for help, and how to improve from experience. The model provides the intelligence, Lucidic gives it a way to learn.

Quantstruct automatically creates and improves product documentation, implementation guides, and changelogs for API & SDK products, web-based enterprise software, and internal applications. Quantstruct identifies gaps in your knowledge base based on each product release or unfulfilled customer query. It uses multiple AI agents to search existing knowledge sources, test existing docs for validity and style guidelines, and clicks, scrolls, and uses enterprise software through a web browser to generate docs with embedded screenshots and video recordings. Quanstruct is available as a cloud service to start, targeting technical writers, content writing, professional services, and product teams. Traditional generative AI tools risk hallucinating critical API & SDK fields, even with RAG based approaches. Purely agent-based approaches risk providing unpredictable output that can diverge from desired documentation processes. Finally, no company’s review and publishing workflow is the same. Quantstruct is the easiest way to onboard and customize AI agents to continuously improve your documentation based on your customer needs and product evolution. https://quantstruct.com

We enable AI to control the browser. Browser-use is the biggest open-source web agent project with 110k+ Github stars.

Asteroid is the AI-powered integration layer for healthcare. One connector for EHRs, payer portals, and legacy desktop systems, with 100+ pre-built integrations that go live in days, not months. Built for developers and operations teams, with integrations that maintain themselves.

x1 is an AI app builder that helps anyone create real, App Store-ready iOS apps. Users start with a structured product plan, design polished iPhone screens in a visual canvas, build features step by step, and prepare launch assets like App Store listings, screenshots, monetization, and analytics. Instead of generating one-shot AI demos, x1 gives builders a guided system for turning an idea into a real app.

Kilvin is an AI-native agency that builds custom software solutions for non-technical teams. With AI, the future of software is democratized. Every team deserves tools built exactly for them, not off-the-shelf SaaS products they need to adapt to. Kilvin makes it a reality, delivering a private, secure workspace of custom applications, built around your workflows and ready in days, not months. No engineers needed on your side. Just software that fits exactly how you work.

AutoComputer is a desktop robotic process automation system.  Given just a text prompt, our AI automates tedious tasks such as financial data entry by performing all the clicks and keystrokes for you.

Dexter helps procurement teams understand exactly where money is being spent and where it can be saved. Dexter's AI agents mine supplier invoices and contracts for insights, surfacing consolidation opportunities, contract leakage, and off-contract spend.

Ficra automates workflows for SMBs and Mid-sized businesses and firms.

Leading enterprises use Callback to manage complicated, real-world workflows. We integrate with your systems, not the other way around. Our platform serves as an auditable and permissioned system of record for your operations.

Decisional is the fastest way to build self healing automation agents that work with the apps you use. You just ask for an agent in natural language, it builds and tests its own workflow that it runs constantly in the background.

We’re building the next generation of warehouse robotics. In the US today, retailers spend approximately $10B per year paying human laborers to pick up and move cardboard boxes in warehouses. Existing solutions for automating this are expensive and difficult to install, which is why manual operation is still so prevalent. Our solution is different. We make swarms of small mobile robots that install into existing warehouses to provide a low-cost and robust automation solution for case picking and mixed-SKU palletization. Our novel technology allows these robots to be installed and operate at significantly lower cost than existing solutions while being both flexible and robust.

Sage is a HIPAA compliant, AI-native communication platform that makes home care agency client-intake handling smarter, faster, and more reliable. Teams that use Sage can save over 100 minutes of busywork per prospect, freeing up their teams to manage a larger, faster growing business.

Elevate is bringing AI to private equity-backed roll-ups. For example, one of our customers is Guardian Restoration Partners, which is backed by Alpine Investors, the leading roll-up focused private equity firm. In three months, we integrated 10 acquisitions and enabled them to pilot AI agents built on top of our data warehouse. We know this problem personally. Before Elevate, Scott was a Vice President at a $15B private equity firm where he was leading a roll-up. Steve and Jeff are both software engineers with backgrounds across finance, big tech, and start-ups. The founding team has been friends for over a decade from their Duke undergraduate days.

FINNY is the AI-native organic growth engine for financial advisors, focused on helping them grow their practices Our goal is to empower financial advisors to reach the right potential clients at the right time, with the right message. We are building a world where anyone who wants financial advice can connect with the right advisor, while helping advisors ensure organic growth, the most existential problem advisors face. The organic growth process has historically been highly inefficient and full of noise. Advisors often waste 60+ hours of business development to convert 1 new client. At FINNY, we are certain we can do better with AI. With our tool, advisors can: - Identify prospects within their target niche, aggregating thousands of data points per lead - Prioritize prospects based on their predicted likelihood of converting using F-Score, a score unique to each advisor and prospect pair - Automate the outreach and meeting scheduling with their high priority prospects In essence, FINNY does all the rote work for the advisors, letting them focus on what actually matters: the client relationship.

Entangl uses AI to detect and automatically resolve issues in data center engineering and operations, ensuring efficiency and uptime.