One of Silicon Valley’s most renowned startup accelerators, Y Combinator held its Winter 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday, showing off the latest batches of 160 startups being cooked. Some of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups, including Stripe, Airbnb and Reddit, started with the YC batch.
Today, YC’s new startups are focused on building the next big thing with AI. In this batch, we noticed an astonishing number of startups creating tools to boost AI agents in other companies. Rather than building their own AI agents, these startups are building support tools. Today, there is no shortage of companies building AI agent tools, but these were sticking out from the crowd.
There are some honorable mentions that we didn’t make this list at all, but still managed to get our attention. There’s Optifye, a startup building software to manage factory workers, who got caught up in social controversy a few weeks ago. Some artificial societies run AI simulations to test how well LinkedIn posts work in simulated versions of the network.
YC has always embraced eye-catching companies, but here is the startup that appears to be worth paying attention to at YC W25.
What it does: Agent Teleo Operation API
Why it’s my favorite: One of the main reasons Waymo has successfully deployed autonomous Robotaxis is that it can take over the vehicle remotely in the event of a human being stuck. Abundant has built a platform that employs the same idea, teleo manipulation, and applies it to all AI agents. Aubundant says the API will allow the AI agent to catch when it fails, allowing one of the human operators to intervene and take over.
What does it do: Allow AI agents to navigate the browser
Why is it my favorite: Coincidentally, my browser usage went viral earlier this week. This is because Manus, a Chinese AI agent, used an open source tool to click on the site menu and fill out the browser form. One of the founders told TechCrunch that daily downloads have reached 28,000. With web browsing AI agents such as Openai operators taking off, the use of browsers appears to provide an attractive open source tool that allows them.
What it does: Replace boring grading tasks with AI
Why is it your favorite: Teaching Assistant (TA) is the backbone of modern universities, quietly rated for professors and groans other groans. However, rating a mountain of repetitive papers may not be the best use of the TA era where they can teach students directly. GradeWiz was founded by Cornell TAS, who openly declared he “hate grading,” and uses AI tools to automate tasks to make TAS more accessible to time.
What it does: Robin Hood Pokemon Card
It’s my favorite: Misprint has a cool origin story. Its co-founder, Eva Herget, quit his job at Goldman Sachs, selling Pokemon cards full-time, raking up $40,000 a month. Now, Herget and her co-founders have launched a platform to sell cards and other collectibles that users can treat as if they were in stock using the bid/ASK system. It’s not a small market. $3.5 billion second-hand Pokemon cards are sold every year, Misprint says.
What it does: Find the best vibe coder using AI
Why it’s my favorite: AI-assisted “atmosphere coding” is all rage, and YC partners have recently said that a quarter of YC startups have a codebase generated for 95% of AI. However, AI-assisted coding is not just about fraud. That in itself is a skill. Nextbyte says it will help companies find the best “atmosphere coders” thanks to an AI model that gives power to interviews that test the skills of test coders when leveraging AI.
What it does: AI Clone Zoom Call
Why is it your favorite: Who isn’t jumping into Zoom meetings for work in the bad case of bed hair and barely hidden pajama pants? Pickles solves this by “cloning” the ideal version yourself, placing that much better-configured individual on the screen, and lip-syncing to the voice in real time. As a (most) remote team, Pickles really hopes that they say they have over 1,500 paid users so far.
What it does: AI agents that automate restaurant management
Why is it my favorite: We were waiting for enough work to know that managing a restaurant is not an exact science. Restaurant inventory management is often done on Google Sheets and includes many calls and emails with suppliers. Rebolt says it is trying to automate some of its work with AI agents, and the company is in pricing discussions with Burger King’s parent company.
What it does: Roomba for farm weeds
Why is it a favorite: Weeds kill farms, but removing those weeds is a difficult task that requires a lot of human labor. Founded by the former Apple Hardware Lead, Red Barn Robotics, a weeding robot called “field hand” is 15 times faster than humans and is a quarter of its price. The company has already signed a $5 million LOI for future growth.
What it does: Vintage clothing market curated by AI
Why is it your favorite: If you’ve ever shopped vintage clothing online, you know it can be an overwhelming experience. There are many options and quality is difficult to assess. Retrofit uses AI to sort thousands of vintage lists and create a market based on current trends. Plus, their website looks great.
What it does: an autonomous patrol boat
Why is it your favorite: From Shield AI’s “AI Fighter Pilot” to Salonic’s planned autonomous warship factory, autonomy is now pioneering with defense technology. Splash builds small patrol boats that autonomously patrol the ocean boundaries. The startup says it has already autonomously cruised 200 miles in the San Francisco Bay Area, claiming an impressive 800-mile range.