The 11 standout startups from YC’s Demo Day, according to VCs
With each new season comes another YC Demo Day. On Tuesday, the Spring 2026 cohort was unveiled, filled with defense tech, robotics, AI infrastructure and
With each new season comes another YC Demo Day. On Tuesday, the Spring 2026 cohort was unveiled, filled with defense tech, robotics, AI infrastructure and developer tools, and of course, AI agents themselves. TechCrunch spoke to eight investors to determine which ones were the hottest companies in this batch — both the ones they were watching and the startups they heard other VCs couldn’t get enough of. This list consists primarily of companies that had been flagged by at least two investors as the buzziest in the batch. That excitement translated into larger rounds and massive price tags for some of these companies. Just when we thought YC valuations couldn’t get any higher, they surpassed all expectations. This batch had at least two startups fetching valuations of $175 million or more. Investors were also clearly willing to pay a premium for proven, repeat founders. We’ve organized the standouts alphabetically below 9 Mothers What it’s building: AI-powered counter-drone systems Why it’s a fav: The Russia-Ukraine conflict is showing just how lethal small drones are, with the systems now accounting for roughly 80% of casualties. Existing counter-drone solutions are expensive and often useless at jamming swarms of drones flying at low altitudes. 9 Mothers claims that it developed a more “affordable” robot that can track and kill drones traveling at 60 miles per hour. Founded in 2024, the startup has already booked $1.6 million in sales, with a single contract expected to expand to $35 million later this year. The company is also promising investors that it can reach a pipeline of $1 billion in contracts. That potential coupled with a clear need had VCs eager to invest, at a valuation of upwards of $200 million, one VC told us. (9 Mothers did not respond to our request for comment.) One investor told us that 9 Mothers was the most highly valued startup of the batch, and possibly one of the most valuable in YC history. Agra Labs What it’s building: A tool that provides digital twin environments for testing AI agents Why it’s a fav: AI helps software engineers generate more code at much faster speeds. That code needs to be tested, but traditional testing environments, also known as sandboxes, cannot be created fast enough to keep up. Arga Labs solves this bottleneck by instantly spinning up ‘digital twins’ of a company’s software, allowing AI agents to safely test their code before it reaches production.
Adialante What it’s building: Mobile MRI clinics for early cancer detection Why it’s a fav: We know early detection saves lives, but the healthcare system doesn’t have enough MRI machines to screen everyone regularly. They are just too expensive—costing millions to buy and tens of thousands a year to maintain. Adialante is trying 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 machines to clinics and charge $250 a scan. The company’s massive, but worthwhile ambition is to change MRI scans from being reserved for symptomatic patients into a routine annual screening. Complir What it’s building: Compliance management for physical products Why it’s a fav: It can be quite complicated to ship physical goods across borders. There are so many regulations, such as ensuring proper translations when selling into the EU, or that a beauty product’s labeling complies with each country’s labeling requirements. Complir hopes to make this easier by creating AI agents that help businesses manage and monitor compliance, risk, and regulatory changes, and generate the necessary documentation and product labels for products that will be shipped internationally. It’s not shocking that investors have taken note of a company like this — it’s product is addressing a specific pain point for many businesses where AI should be able to help. Dispatch What it’s building: Satellites that can safely return products manufactured in space back to Earth Why it’s a fav: Space, due to microgravity and a near-perfect vacuum, is a great environment for manufacturing certain pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and 3D-printed human tissues and organs. Manufacturing in space could be the future, and Dispatch wants to be a part of it by developing vehicles that can withstand the heat and return those products back to Earth. Unlike many space capsules that burn up or are discarded after one use, Dispatch is designing its vehicles to be refurbished and sent back up to space over and over. VCs are betting that space manufacturing is closer than we think, and there could be great value in handling the transportation of those products. Lightsprint What it’s building: A tool that lets non-engineers ship and build features without writing code Why it’s a fav: Lightsprint lets anyone, whether they have coding experience or not, build and ship production features for applications.
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