ExploreYC

Explore 6,600+ YC and a16z companies via a free open API.

Quick answer

ExploreYC — Explore 6,600+ YC and a16z companies via a free open API. It's freemium. Best for developers building startup discovery or CRM tools who need structured YC and a16z company data.

ExploreYC is a free, open-source REST API and web application that aggregates data on more than 6,600 Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies, giving developers, founders, and investors programmatic access to the startup ecosystem. The platform covers company funding rounds, exit history, founder profiles, batch information, and industry classifications, all queryable through a clean public JSON API. Users can filter results by VC firm, batch cohort, industry vertical, and country, making it easy to slice and dice the YC and a16z landscape for research or product development. Beyond the API, ExploreYC includes an interactive map for geographic discovery, a live hiring board aggregating open roles across portfolio companies, and batch-level analytics to identify trends across cohorts. Because it is fully open source and self-hostable via GitHub, technically capable teams can deploy their own instance without rate limit concerns. ExploreYC is particularly valuable for builders who want to enrich their own tools with startup data, for investors conducting due diligence on the YC ecosystem, and for founders benchmarking their peers. Compared to paid alternatives like Crunchbase, ExploreYC offers a no-cost entry point with a developer-first design and transparent data sourcing.

Key features

Public JSON REST API with company lookups and filtering by VC, batch, industry, and country
Interactive geographic map of portfolio companies worldwide
Live hiring board aggregating open roles across YC and a16z portfolio companies
Batch analytics and trend dashboards for cohort-level research

Pros & cons

PROS

+Completely free and open source with self-hosting option for unlimited usage
+Covers 6,600-plus companies with rich data including funding, exits, and founders
+Developer-friendly JSON API with multiple filter dimensions out of the box

CONS

−Free tier is limited to just 5 API requests per day, which restricts production use cases
−Paid API Pro tier is not yet confirmed live, leaving heavy users without a clear upgrade path

Pricing

Free tier

5 API requests/day

Paid from

Pricing on request

Enterprise

Contact for details

Who is it for

→Developers building startup discovery or CRM tools who need structured YC and a16z company data
→Investors performing due diligence or market mapping across the YC and a16z ecosystems
→Founders researching competitors, peers, or potential co-founders within specific YC batches

Frequently asked questions

Is ExploreYC free?

Yes, ExploreYC is free to use with a public tier that allows 5 API requests per day. The project is also fully open source, so developers can self-host their own instance on GitHub with no request limits.

What is ExploreYC best used for?

ExploreYC is best used for programmatic research into the Y Combinator and a16z startup ecosystems. Ideal use cases include building startup discovery tools, conducting investor due diligence, exploring hiring trends in portfolio companies, and analyzing batch cohort data.

What are the best alternatives to ExploreYC?

The most direct alternatives are Crunchbase and PitchBook for comprehensive startup data, though both require paid subscriptions. YC's own directory at ycombinator.com provides basic company listings, and Harmonic or Dealroom offer API-accessible startup intelligence at a cost.

Is ExploreYC safe to use?

ExploreYC is an open-source project, meaning its codebase is publicly auditable on GitHub. The data it serves is sourced from publicly available information about portfolio companies, so there are no significant privacy concerns for most research and development use cases.

How much does ExploreYC cost?

The core product is free, with a public API tier limited to 5 requests per day. A paid API Pro tier has been discussed but is not confirmed as live; interested users should contact the team directly for current pricing details.

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