The second day of Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 Demo Day is now behind us, and the TechCrunch team is recovering from watching hundreds of pitches in quick succession. Every accelerator demo day is a marathon, but the American group has worked with more startups over time, making its pitch sessions a veritable deluge of new companies and founders.
Recall that nearly 400 companies presented at YC Demo Day from a cohort of 414 in total. So, TechCrunch took on the group from a variety of perspectives. What follows is our collected coverage from the day, so that you can dive into the particular areas that you care about most.
Yesterday we took a look at startups in the batch that hailed from Africa, that work in fintech, are crypto-focused and that compete with one another, and we also tracked a list of favorites. Today we’re taking a look at AI startups, open source-focused companies, and, yes, more favorites.
Recall that Y Combinator changed its standard deal this year, adding more capital to each company that it funds. That means that the startups in its latest cohort are better funded than probably ever before. And we’re seeing some signals that investors are paying more for shares in the current YC Demo Day batch than in prior years. It’s a rich time to build a nascent tech company. Let’s learn more about what’s under construction!
TechCrunch’s YC Demo Day favorites, part 2
Day two is in the books! TechCrunch once again spent much of the day watching a parade of startups present as part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 cohort, Demo Day part two. Yeah, that’s a mouthful. But we did learn quite a lot. Reporters Alex Wilhelm, Christine Hall, Mary Ann Azevedo and Devin Coldewey share their favorite startups to come out of day two of YC Demo Day.
Here are TC’s favorite YC Demo Day startups, part 2.
AI startups from YC Demo Day Winter 2022
Dozens of startups in Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 cohort do something that could be described as AI. Though the term has lost much of its meaning, it’s still an important part of the tech landscape, and both using it and enabling it are fertile ground for new companies.
Here are 14 notable AI startups from the latest YC Demo Day batch.
Open source companies from YC Demo Day Winter 2022
Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 open source founders have some interesting ideas up their sleeves. And since they’re open source, some of these companies will let you join in on the fun of collaboration too.
Here are all of the open source related companies presenting at Demo Day in the Winter 2022 cohort.
Nigeria leads the way in YC Demo Day’s participation in Africa
TechCrunch has covered more African startups in the last year than any period in our history, and it’s no coincidence. Many of these African companies are Nigerian, which is the most active venture capital scene in Africa in 2021. The country’s rise has been sufficiently sharp — it makes sense that Nigeria garners the most African representatives in any Y Combinator batch.
Read more on why Nigeria leads the way in this YC Demo Day batch.
Best logos of YC Demo Day Winter 2022
Over 400 companies presented at YC Demo Day Winter 2022; that’s over 400 logos. Senior Editor Devin Coldewey shuffled through the entire list to call out some of the best logos in the Winter 2022 batch. There are a lot of solid ones, a few clunkers and a handful of really nice ones.
