This Week in YC 3
Welcome to the 3rd weekly series of Y Combinator startup updates!
This Week in YC is an attempt to form major Y Combinator startups changes such as pivots, market expansions, team changes on C-level and metrics improvements into (possibly) valuable insights.
Feedback is indeed very welcome since I’m still on the way to figuring out the best possible representation of such information. Enjoy!
🌐 SaaS
Officely
Building the platform to support the hybrid workplace
Batch: S17
Changes:
Industry
Before: B2B, Proptech, SaaS
After: B2B, SaaS
Headline
Before: Officely helps you get back to the office by embracing Hybrid work
After: Building the platform to support the hybrid workplace
Description
Before: Through our integration with Slack, Officely learns how you work to create an office schedule that gives your employees the optimum balance whilst A) ensuring they overlap with those they work alongside B) that you don't breach your COVID capacity limits. Giving you the highest levels of productivity and collaboration, whilst keeping your team safe
After: Officely is a Slack application that helps companies reopen their offices, book desks, see who's in on different days of the week and coordinate in-person meet-ups. You can easily install Officely and try it out for free by clicking the link below 👇
⚖️ Legal
Darrow
AI-Powered Legal Claim Mining
Batch: W21
Changes:
Description
Before: We monitor the web to unearth hidden legal violations and bring them to court
After: Darrow is on a mission to promote frictionless justice. The company's legal data platform allows litigation experts to monitor the deep web and discover undetected violations of the law. Law firms use Darrow's system to take cases with the highest potential impact and success rate to court - securing compensation for victims and deterring bad actors from wrongdoing
💰 FinTech
Meru.com
The leading B2B wholesale marketplace in Latin America
Batch: W21
Changes:
Headline
Before: The one-stop-shop for Asian Wholesale in Latin America
After: The leading B2B wholesale marketplace in Latin America
Neema
Neema is an app for unbanked workers, which provides a checking account, a debit-card and instant remittance to 90 countries, all for $3 a month
Batch: W17
Changes:
Status
Before: Active
After: Inactive
🔐 Web3
Helicarrier
Cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa
Batch: S18
Changes:
Name
Before: Buycoins
After: Helicarrier
Headline
Before: Cryptocurrency exchange for Africa
After: Cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa
Description
Before: Buycoins (previously Bitkoin Africa) is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows Africans buy and sell cryptocurrencies instantly using their local currency
After: Helicarrier (previously Buycoins) is building cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa. To accomplish this, we're building:
- Buycoins is the easiest place to buy, sell, and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio
- Sendcash is a crypto powered remittance product by BuyCoins
- Sendcash Pay is a suite of developer tools that let you add borderless payment experiences to your digital product.
- NGNT is a collateral backed Naira stablecoin
Spruce Systems, Inc.
Spruce lets users control their data across the web
Batch: W21
Changes:
Industry
Before: Documents, Marketplace, SaaS
After: Blockchain
Headline
Before: The most secure and convenient way for developers to share data
After: Spruce lets users control their data across the web
Description
Before: Spruce is the most secure and convenient way for developers to share data. We package information like bank statements, medical records, and proprietary data into portable containers that are globally verifiable
After: Spruce provides an ecosystem of open source tools for developers that let users collect their data in one place that they control, and show their cards however they want. Spruce's solution enables limitless use cases across NFT creator authenticity, cross-chain reputation, private pools for DeFi, and even permissioned storage for DAOs
Infina
Robinhood of Vietnam (retail investing app)
Batch: S21
Changes:
Description
Before: … We are launching stock trading on Sept 15th, and crypto in the second half of next year. …
After: … We are launching stock trading in Q4 2021, and crypto in the second half of next year. …
📚 Education
BlaBla
The Language Learning App For The Gen Z
Batch: S20
Changes:
Description
Before: We are making language learning fun and effective. You can think of us as Interactive Tiktok for language learning
After: BlaBla is an online learning platform for fluent English speakers to teach English to language learners in Asia and the World online through audio chat rooms and videos. The company recognizes the fragmented characteristic of language learning. Unlike traditional online tutoring, BlaBla empowers teachers to create engaging video content for users to learn at their own pace online or host a real-time audio chat room to teach users speaking in various topics. Our goal is to foster a more convenient, fun, and effective educational experience for teachers and learners. Founded in 2019, the company has established offices and R&D centers in Suzhou, China, and Silicon Valley, CA. We believe that motivation and incentives are the keys to successful teaching and learning experiences
QuestBook
A Decentralized University, where learning is always free
Batch: W21
Changes:
Industry
Before: Education
After: Cryptocurrency, Education
Landing Page
Before: Web Archive
After: Web Archive
Emote
Emote is a K-12 app that helps schools catch student behavior problems before they start
Batch: S16
Changes:
Status
Before: Active
After: Inactive
Pantheon
A competitive community of the brightest students in the world
Batch: W20
Changes:
Status
Before: Active
After: Inactive
🏥 Health
Tambua Health
The T-Scope is an app-based handheld ultrasound system that brings…
Batch: W20
Changes:
Description
Before: We are developing a device – ” called T-Sense”, that uses sound to take a picture of the lungs, like an x-ray but with sound instead of radiation
After: The T-Scope is an app-based handheld ultrasound system that brings…
🥦 FoodTech
Pepper
Find low carbon restaurant dishes, recipes, and groceries
Batch: S19
Changes:
Headline
Before: Order food and offset your carbon emissions
After: Find low carbon restaurant dishes, recipes, and groceries
🛒 eCommerce
Emcee
Increase conversion of your online store with a live shopping host
Batch: S21
Changes:
Name
Before: Appollo
After: Emcee
Headline
Before: A single API to launch your app to all eCommerce platforms
After: Increase conversion of your online store with a live shopping host
Description
Before: Appollo enables you to create 1 app with our APIs and launch it to all the eCommerce platforms while also letting you maintain it as 1 app. This helps you avoid the 1 month/app development time and the increasing maintenance costs as you launch to more platforms. - Reduce development time/time-to-market - Increase distribution - Reduce maintenance cost
After: Emcee helps e-commerce stores increase conversion with a live shopping host. How does it work: 1. Emcee is a widget that integrates with a store like a chatbot button 2. We provide a live stream host tailored to the brand 3. The live stream host interacts with website visitors and increase sales
🧑💻 Developer Tools
Emerge Tools
Build mobile better
Batch: W21
Changes:
Headline
Before: Monitor and reduce app size
After: Build mobile better
Description
Before: Emerge is building tools to monitor and reduce app size. Their actionable insights provide instant savings, while their continuous monitoring helps developers write smaller, better code by profiling binary size on every pull request. Bloated apps have a lower install rate and higher uninstall rate, leading to decreased customer engagement and ultimately revenue loss
After: Emerge is helping teams like Dropbox build mobile better. Emerge Tools provides actionable insights to help instantly reduce app size, while enabling continuous monitoring to help developers write smaller, better code by profiling binary size on every pull request
Haiku
Collaboration tools for software companies
Batch: W18
Changes:
Status
Before: Active
After: Inactive