The 11 standout startups from YC’s Demo Day, according to VCs
The 11 standout startups from YC’s Demo Day, according to VCs
YC 路演日最受风投青睐的 11 家初创公司
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. 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. 随着每一季的到来，又一场 YC 路演日（Demo Day）如期而至。周二，2026 年春季班正式亮相，涵盖了国防科技、机器人、人工智能基础设施、开发者工具，当然还有 AI 智能体。TechCrunch 采访了八位投资人，以确定本期最热门的公司——既包括他们自己关注的项目，也包括他们从其他风投口中听到的“抢手货”。
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: 这份名单主要由至少两位投资人点名、被认为是本期最受关注的公司组成。这种热情转化为部分公司更大规模的融资轮次和惊人的估值。就在我们以为 YC 的估值不会再高时，它们再次超出了所有人的预期。本期至少有两家初创公司的估值达到了 1.75 亿美元或更高。显然，投资人也更愿意为经验丰富的连续创业者支付溢价。以下是按字母顺序排列的佼佼者：
9 Mothers
What it’s building: AI-powered counter-drone systems 正在开发： AI 驱动的反无人机系统
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 upward of $200 million, one VC told us. At that valuation, 9 Mothers is not only the most highly valued startup of the batch, but also potentially one of the most valuable in YC history. (9 Mothers did not respond to our request for comment.) 为何受青睐： 俄乌冲突展示了小型无人机的致命性，目前约 80% 的伤亡由这些系统造成。现有的反无人机解决方案不仅昂贵，而且在干扰低空飞行的无人机群时往往无效。9 Mothers 声称开发出了一种更“经济实惠”的机器人，能够追踪并击落时速 60 英里的无人机。这家成立于 2024 年的初创公司已实现 160 万美元的销售额，预计今年晚些时候单一合同规模将扩大至 3500 万美元。该公司还向投资人承诺，其合同储备规模有望达到 10 亿美元。一位风投告诉我们，这种潜力加上明确的市场需求，使得投资人争相入局，估值超过 2 亿美元。按此估值，9 Mothers 不仅是本期估值最高的初创公司，也可能是 YC 历史上估值最高的公司之一。（9 Mothers 未回应我们的置评请求。）
Arga Labs
What it’s building: A tool that provides digital twin environments for testing AI agents 正在开发： 为测试 AI 智能体提供数字孪生环境的工具
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. 为何受青睐： AI 帮助软件工程师以更快的速度生成更多代码。这些代码需要测试，但传统的测试环境（即沙盒）创建速度无法跟上需求。Arga Labs 通过即时创建公司软件的“数字孪生”解决了这一瓶颈，使 AI 智能体能够在代码进入生产环境前进行安全测试。
Adialante
What it’s building: Mobile MRI clinics for early cancer detection 正在开发： 用于早期癌症检测的移动 MRI（核磁共振）诊所
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. 为何受青睐： 我们都知道早期检测可以挽救生命，但医疗系统没有足够的 MRI 设备来为每个人进行定期筛查。这些设备太贵了——购买成本高达数百万美元，每年的维护费用也高达数万美元。Adialante 正试图解决这个问题。该初创公司表示，他们设计了一种可以装在小型卡车上运输的紧凑型 MRI 装置。Adialante 的商业模式是将这些设备带到诊所，并收取每次 250 美元的扫描费。该公司宏大且极具价值的目标是，将 MRI 扫描从仅针对有症状患者的检查，转变为常规的年度筛查。
Complir
What it’s building: Compliance management for physical products 正在开发： 针对实体产品的合规管理工具
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 ensuring 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 — its product is addressing a specific pain point for many businesses where AI should be able to help. 为何受青睐： 跨境运输实体商品非常复杂。法规繁多，例如在向欧盟销售时需确保正确的翻译，或确保美容产品的标签符合各国的标签要求。Complir 希望通过创建 AI 智能体来简化这一过程，帮助企业管理和监控合规性、风险及法规变化，并为国际运输的产品生成必要的文件和标签。投资人关注到这样的公司并不令人意外——其产品解决了许多企业面临的具体痛点，而这正是 AI 可以发挥作用的地方。
Dispatch
What it’s building: Satellites that can safely return products manufactured in space back to Earth 正在开发： 能将太空制造产品安全送回地球的卫星
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. 为何受青睐： 由于微重力和近乎完美的真空环境，太空是制造某些药品、半导体以及 3D 打印人体组织和器官的绝佳环境。太空制造可能是未来，Dispatch 希望通过开发能够承受高温并将产品送回地球的飞行器来参与其中。与许多使用一次即烧毁或废弃的太空舱不同，Dispatch 设计的飞行器可以翻新并反复送往太空。风投们押注太空制造比我们想象的更近，而处理这些产品的运输将具有巨大的价值。
Lightsprint
What it’s building: A tool that lets non-engineers ship and build features without writing code 正在开发： 一款让非工程师无需编写代码即可构建和发布功能的工具
Why it’s a fav: Lightsprint lets anyone, whether they have coding experience or not, build and ship production features for applications. In the past, if a change needed to be made in an application, a product manager had to wait for an engineer to fix it. But Lightsprint hopes to be the tool that product managers use directly instead. Users explain what they want fixed or adjusted, then pick from visual options of how they want the changes to appear, and a Lightsprint AI agent will build it for them. After the product manager is satisfied, an engineer reviews, approves, and merges the new code into the existing code, and then the company can officially ship the new feature. 为何受青睐： Lightsprint 让任何人，无论是否有编程经验，都能为应用程序构建和发布生产级功能。过去，如果应用程序需要修改，产品经理必须等待工程师来修复。但 Lightsprint 希望成为产品经理直接使用的工具。用户只需说明想要修复或调整的内容，然后从视觉选项中选择他们希望的呈现方式，Lightsprint 的 AI 智能体就会为其构建。在产品经理满意后，工程师进行审核、批准并将新代码合并到现有代码中，公司即可正式发布新功能。
Ploy
What it’s building: A tool that automates website building and marketing growth 正在开发： 一款自动化网站构建和营销增长的工具
Why it’s a fav: Our sources weren’t kidding that Ploy is hot. Shortly after we added the company to our list, Ploy announced a healthy $27 million seed round led by First Round and Y Combinator. The draw? Ploy is founded by Bryant Chou, co-founder and former CTO of Webflow, a drag-and-drop website builder last valued at $4 billion. Ploy takes website creation much further by automatically generating landing pages, writing marketing copy. 为何受青睐： 我们的消息来源说 Ploy 很火，这并非虚言。在我们将其列入名单后不久，Ploy 就宣布完成了由 First Round 和 Y Combinator 领投的 2700 万美元种子轮融资。吸引力何在？Ploy 的创始人是 Bryant Chou，他是 Webflow 的联合创始人兼前 CTO，Webflow 是一家估值达 40 亿美元的拖拽式网站构建平台。Ploy 通过自动生成落地页和撰写营销文案，将网站创建提升到了一个新的高度。