Y Combinator held its 2025 summer demo day last week, showing off over 160 new startups.
Like the recent batches, most startups have come up with AI-centric solutions. However, the obvious evolution is obvious. Instead of “AI-driven” products, many companies are now building AI agents, or developing the infrastructure and tools they need. For example, the batch has a range of voice AI solutions, while the new business is committed to helping others profit through the “AI economy” through advertising and marketing tools.
We talked with a handful of YC investors to see which startups they found most interesting and generated the highest investment demand.
Here are the most commonly mentioned:
What it does: Stripes of AI startups
Why this is a favorite person: Many AI startups use sophisticated pricing models that typically blend flat subscription fees per seat with usage-based fees, credit, and various additional costs. Managing complex AI pricing on stripes is a time-consuming manual process. That’s why Autumn developed an open source infrastructure that simplifies striped integration for AI startups. The company said its technology has been used by hundreds of AI applications and 40 YC startups. Given Stripe’s dominance in payments and the explosive growth of the AI market, can AI’s dedicated billing solutions be the next major fintech success story?
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What it does: Build Vercel for AI Agents
Why this is a favorite person: Just as Vercel helps developers deploy and host startup, Dedalus Labs claims that its platform can automatically use the infrastructure that builds AI agents, reducing encoding hours to a few. The company handles complex tasks such as complex tasks such as automation and load balancing, which makes the deployment of agents fast and simple.
What it does: Crowdsourcing ranking of atmosphere coding design
Why this is a favorite person: The ability of AI to quickly generate a lot of designs brings a new problem: figuring out which ones are actually good. The design field solves this problem through the ranking of visual effects generated by crowdsourcing AI, thus creating a feedback loop that forces AI models to improve. Large AI labs see the value of training models to generate better designs, as some of them are already customers in the design field.
What it does: Technology distributors of Southeast Asian retailers
Why this is a favorite person: Getasap Asia was founded by Raghav Arora three years ago when he was only 14 years old. Since then, startups that use Tech to provide supplies to Corner stores, restaurants and large supermarkets in less than eight hours have earned millions of dollars. Getasap Asia ends a round from the general catalyst. websitewe heard that the startup has the highest valuation in the entire batch.
What it does: Fixing a bug in production AI engineer
Why this is a favorite person: Keystone was founded by a 20-year-old Pablo Hansen who earned his master’s degree in AI, and his mission is to reduce software disruptions. Hansen said the company’s AI found and fixed bugs for adorable customers and had rejected a seven-figure acquisition offer.
What it does: AI matchmaker for female friends
Why this is a favorite person: Although there is not enough dating apps, Realroots is addressing another sense of loneliness. The company’s AI matchmaker Lisa interviews women and then organizes social experiences to connect them with compatible friends. While the AI part may be expressive – a conversation with Lisa may not have more realistic insights than written answers – hell can happen. Its founder said the company created $782,000 from 9,000 paid customers last month alone.
What it does: Automatic claim with AI
Why this is a favorite person: Solva’s AI automates the most common tasks of insurance regulators, from filling in complex claims to preventing mispayments. Just ten weeks after launch, Solva has amassed $245,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a figure that excited investors.
What it does: Anti-numerous radio criminals
Why this is a favorite person: With China It is said that The U.S. military has accumulated swarms of cheap drones, and urgently needs cost-effective anti-drone solutions. Perseus is developing it: small missiles are designed to shoot down drones at a fraction of the cost of existing systems. Several branches of the U.S. military have invited the startup to prove its solution, which could lead to a large number of contracts.
What it does: AI Foreign Language Tutor
Why this is a favorite person: Applications like Duolingo make language learning accessible and fun, but they often lack the key component of fluency: consistent conversations. Pingo solves this problem by allowing users to talk to their AI, a native speaker. The company’s unique approach proved to be very popular, with the founders claiming a 70% monthly increase and a monthly revenue of $250,000.
