16 of the most interesting startups from YC W26 Demo Day Dominic-Madori Davis 12:30 PM PDT · March 26, 2026 AI was once again the buzzword for this latest batch of YC Demo Day companies. Nearly 190 companies participated in Y Combinator’s Winter ’26 cohort and presented their startups in a Demo Day on Tuesday.
These companies are working on products across industries such as law, transportation, and healthcare.
I did not, admittedly, listen to every single product pitch, given the sheer size of the cohort and this year’s Demo Day format available to media. YC posted the pitch videos, one by one, around 20 minutes after the founders presented (rather than a livestream, or an in-person session invite).
Instead, I read about all 190 of the startups presenting and spent the day watching pitches from those I found intriguing, then narrowed it down to the 16 that stood out as the most interesting startups of this overflowing YC class.
ARC Prize Foundation What it does: Creates benchmarks to help measure progress toward AGI.
Why it’s interesting: A nonprofit in YC! But then again, when OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are already using some form of the organization’s benchmarks, it makes sense why it would be included. This foundation aims to inspire more open source AGI research by hosting competitions and awarding research grants. One reason for this AI revolution is to reach AGI (which Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says has already arrived), and it will be a matter of historical record for tracking how close we are from AI machines that have a general intelligence.
Asimov What it does: Collects human movement data to train humanoids
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Avoice What it does: Helps automate the tedious non-design work for architecture firms
Why it’s interesting: It’s not every day you hear about new technology targeting the architectural industry. The founders themselves noted that this market is underserved (though rich in potential). This tool uses AI to help automate tasks that creative types like architects may find tedious like reviewing specifications, drawings, contracts, and proposals.
Button Computer What it does: A wearable AI
Why it’s interesting: Everyone is trying to make wearable AI a thing as the world awaits OpenAI’s product from its acquisition of Johnny Ive’s company. Two former Applers (can I call them that?) have joined together to launch Button, essentially a tiny computer, the founders explained, that’s built for AI. Button connects to apps like email, Slack, and Salesforce and operates them via voice command to perform certain tasks. The next must-have hardware is likely to be some form of AI wearable, so it’s interesting to see what’s emerging.
CodeWisp What it does: Lets anyone build games using AI
Why it’s interesting: The founders say all you have to do is tell an AI how to make a game, and it will make the game. That’s fun, creative, exciting! I tried to build games as a child and always found it hard and tedious, but the excitement of designing one never went away. While vibe coding has become the rage for building apps, tools like this make imaginative execution much easier. Maybe this will be the next generation of vibe building.
Crosslayer Labs What it does: Helps detect website spoofs
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