11 startups featured at YC Demo Day, according to venture capital funds

With every new season comes another YC Demo Day. On Tuesday, the Spring 2026 collection was revealed, filled with defense technology, robotics, AI infrastructure, developer tools, and of course, the AI ​​agents themselves.

TechCrunch spoke to eight investors to determine which companies were the hottest in this batch — whether ones they’ve been keeping an eye on or startups they’ve heard other VCs can’t get enough of. This list consists primarily of companies that have been identified by at least two investors as the most interesting of the group.

This excitement has translated into larger tours and hefty prices for some of these companies. Just when we thought YC’s ratings couldn’t go any higher, they have exceeded all expectations. This batch includes at least two startups valued at $175 million or more. It is also clear that investors were willing to pay a premium to proven, repeat founders.

We’ve organized the highlights alphabetically below:

9 mothers

What it builds: Artificial intelligence-powered anti-drone systems

Why is it preferred: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine shows just how lethal small drones can be, with the systems now accounting for nearly 80% of casualties. Current counter-drone solutions are expensive and often ineffective at jamming swarms of low-flying drones. 9 Mothers claims to have developed an “affordable” robot that can track and kill drones traveling at 60 miles per hour.

Founded in 2024, the startup has already generated $1.6 million in sales, with one contract expected to expand to $35 million later this year. The company also promises investors that it can access $1 billion worth of contracts. This potential combined with the clear need has venture capital firms eager to invest, at a valuation of more than $200 million, one venture capitalist told us. (9 mothers did not respond to our request for comment.)

One investor told us that 9Mothers was the most valuable startup in the group, and perhaps one of the most valuable in YC history.

Agra Laboratories

What it builds: A tool that provides dual digital environments for testing AI agents

Why is it? favorite: AI helps software engineers create more code at much faster speeds. This code must be tested, but traditional test environments, also known as sandboxes, cannot be built fast enough to keep up. Arga Labs solves this bottleneck by instantly cycling “digital twins” of a company’s software, allowing AI customers to safely test their code before it reaches production.

Adialante

What it builds: Mobile MRI clinics for early cancer detection

Why is it? favorite: We know that early detection saves lives, but the healthcare system doesn’t have enough MRI machines to screen everyone regularly. They are extremely expensive, costing millions to buy and tens of thousands a year to maintain. Adialante tries to solve this problem. The startup says it has designed a compact MRI unit that can be transported in a small truck. Adialante’s business model is to bring these devices into clinics and charge $250 for a scan. The company’s huge, but worthwhile, ambition is to change MRI scans from being reserved for symptomatic patients to a routine annual screening.

Complier

What it builds: Compliance management for physical products

Why is it? favorite: Shipping physical goods across borders can be very complicated. There are many regulations, such as ensuring proper translation when selling in the EU, or that the label of a cosmetic product complies with country-specific labeling requirements. Complir hopes to facilitate this by creating AI agents that help companies manage and monitor compliance, risks and regulatory changes, and create the necessary documentation and product labels for products that will be shipped internationally. It’s no surprise that investors are taking notice of a company like this — its product addresses a specific pain point for many companies where AI should be able to help.

send

What it builds: Satellites that can safely return products manufactured in space to Earth

Why is it? favorite: Space, due to microgravity and a near-perfect vacuum, is a great environment for manufacturing some drugs, semiconductors, and 3D-printed human tissues and organs. Manufacturing in space may be the future, and Dispatch wants to be a part of it by developing vehicles that can withstand the heat and return those products to Earth. Unlike many space capsules that burn up or are discarded after a single use, Dispatch designs its vehicles to be refurbished and returned to space again and again. Venture capitalists are betting that manufacturing in space is closer than we think, and there could be significant value in handling the transportation of those products.

Optical fingerprint

What it builds: A tool that allows non-engineers to ship and build features without writing code

Why is it preferred: Lightsprint allows anyone, with or without programming experience, to build and ship production features for applications. In the past, if a change needed to be made in an application, the product manager had to wait for an engineer to fix it. But Lightsprint hopes to be a tool that product managers use directly instead. Users explain what they want to fix or modify, then choose from visual options for how the changes will appear, and the Lightsprint AI agent will create it for them. After the product manager is satisfied, the engineer reviews and approves the new code and merges it into the existing code, after which the company can officially ship the new feature.

trick

What it builds: A tool that automates website creation and marketing growth

Why is it? favorite: Our sources weren’t kidding that Bluey is hot. Shortly after adding the company to our list, Ploy announced a $27 million seed funding round led by First Round and Y Combinator. The lottery? Ploy was founded by Bryant Chou, co-founder and former CTO of Webflow, a drag-and-drop website builder that was recently valued at $4 billion. Ploy takes website creation much further by automatically creating landing pages, writing marketing copy, and launching campaigns. The startup’s AI agents constantly improve website content with the goal of accelerating internal growth. In this way, the startup promises to eliminate the need for a large marketing team.

Al-Azabi

What it builds: An AI-powered platform to find and create fixes for software problems

Why is it preferred: Sazabi was founded by Sherwood Callaway, a frequent YC co-founder, with a resume that also includes being a scout at a16z and an employee at Brex and at 11x. These types of experiences alone make him a popular investor. But venture capitalists are also interested in the product, a tool that helps find and report problems in software production systems. Sazabi integrates with Slack to communicate with teams via this chat app. It analyzes the log (the script that the program writes as it runs) to help determine why something is broken in production, and lets users tell it to create and submit a fix for the problem with one click.

Silmaril

What it builds: AI security infrastructure

Why is it? favorite: Autonomy is a hot area right now for investors, as they are funding countless companies that are putting AI agents to work on important parts of the business. Silmaril works to ensure that customers cannot be compromised via “instant injection” – meaning hackers cannot manipulate public-facing parts of the customer via claims, emails, or other documents. Silmaril agents autonomously scan for new threats to agents and applications, and once a threat is found, they autonomously retrain the firewall to develop immunity against it.

Comprehensive set

What it builds: A platform that allows developers to run at least 100 coding agents simultaneously

Why is it preferred: Programming agents have completely conquered the world of software development. As they multiply, there must be a way to manage them in one place. This is what Superset seeks to do. Its tool allows developers to launch and manage 100 or more coding agents simultaneously. Any CLI agent—such as Claude or Cursor—can run on the platform, and each agent runs in its own little workspace, so there’s no conflict between them. The tool can also be opened in any Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as VS Code or Cursor.

a task

What it builds: Artificial intelligence agent to perform tasks

Why is it? favorite: The company’s premise is simple but has the potential to be incredibly effective. Tasklet is an AI agent that connects to various business application APIs like Slack, Outlook, Google Drive, and others. Users can then ask it to perform tasks involving these applications using natural language.

The user can ask it to automatically handle workflows and perform tasks, such as sorting emails or pulling reports. It also works continuously, which means that even if the user closes a tab, the agent will continue to work. It can write and run its own code as well as create interfaces.

Although some investors have noticed that they are moving away from investing in horizontal tools like these, Tasklet appears to be going against the grain. It positions itself as a place where users go to give commands rather than open apps individually. There may be a future in which this becomes the default way some people interact with software.