// FREE DATASET

The Y Combinator startup directory, enriched with ad data

LinkedIn, Google, and Meta ad counts for all 5,908 Y Combinator companies, from the 2007 batch through Winter 2026.

Plus a sample of the ads themselves: 46,944 creatives across three tabs, with titles, formats, links, and run dates. Create a free Adyntel account to unlock it all, along with 50 credits to run the same lookup on any company you want.

Free Adyntel account, 50 credits, no credit card. Used by Clay, HockeyStack, and 1,000+ teams.

5,908

YC companies

1.52M

ads counted

46,944

sample ad creatives

Apr 2026

data snapshot

Preview the YC ad activity database

Get full access
Company Domain Batch Industry LinkedIn Google Meta 6-mo change
Lattice lattice.com W16 Human Resources 200,424 1,000 0 +74,228
Faire faire.com W17 Retail 66 20,000 764 +142
Segment segment.com S11 Analytics 18,691 600 10 +566
Deel deel.com W19 Finance 6,873 10,000 1,183 -1,701
Rippling rippling.com W17 Human Resources 7,405 3,000 1,173 +3,179
Showing 5 of 5,908 YC companies. Sign up to unlock the full sheet →

What's in the dataset

A Google Sheet with four tabs. Tab one is the full company list. The other three hold a sample of the actual ads, broken out by platform.

5,908 YC companies

Every company from every batch, 2007 through Winter 2026, in a single sortable tab.

Domain and social links

Domain, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Facebook, and X profile URLs for each company.

Ad counts per platform

LinkedIn, Google, and Meta ad counts side by side, plus a total and top platform.

Six-month trend

Volume change since September 2025 so you can spot who is scaling and who pulled back.

Batch, industry, and type

Filter by YC batch, industry, location, and business type (B2B, Consumer, Fintech, and more).

46,944 sample ad creatives

Three extra tabs with actual ads: 27,845 Google, 15,503 LinkedIn, and 3,596 Meta, with titles, formats, links, and dates.

Channel pulse

A label per company: Dormant, Single-Channel, Moderate, or Diversified, based on platform mix.

Location

Headquarters location for each company.

Status

Active, acquired, public, or inactive, for every company in the directory.

Slice the database by what matters

The sheet is built to segment. Here is where the advertisers sit.

By platform

LinkedIn lead947
Google lead865
Meta lead172

By business type

B2B1,111
Fintech256
Consumer228
Healthcare189
Industrials89
Real estate and construction63

By batch era

2023–2026609
2019–2022864
2015–2018359
2007–2014181

By industry (top advertisers)

Engineering, product and design197
Infrastructure99
Productivity85
Marketing66
Operations58
Finance and accounting57
Payments56
Analytics55
Sales54

What we found across all 5,908 companies

Only 34% of YC companies run ads.

2,013 are advertising right now. The rest are dark. Most startups stay off paid far longer than the growth-at-all-costs story suggests, which makes the ones who do advertise the list worth having.

Google and LinkedIn lead. Meta is a distant third.

Of 1.52 million ads tracked, 866K are on Google and 605K on LinkedIn. Meta has 53K. B2B startups lead on LinkedIn, consumer startups lean Google and Meta.

Momentum is expanding.

Since September 2025, 1,196 companies grew ad volume while 601 pulled back, close to two to one toward more ads.

Who uses the YC ad activity database?

Agencies prospecting startups

Filter the list to YC companies running ads, then open outreach with a specific note on their ad activity and platform mix.

SaaS and data platforms selling to startups

Score the list by ad activity and route only the companies showing growth signals to sales.

Competitive and market researchers

Track how a whole cohort advertises, by platform, batch, and industry, without browsing ad libraries by hand.

Investors and analysts

Use ad volume and six-month change as an outside-in read on which portfolio or pipeline companies are scaling.

Frequently asked questions

Is the list really free?
Yes. Create a free Adyntel account and the full sheet unlocks. You also get 50 credits to run the same lookup on any companies you want. No credit card.
How many companies are included?
All 5,908 Y Combinator companies, every batch through Winter 2026.
Do I get the actual ads or just counts?
Both. Tab one has the counts and trends for all 5,908 companies. Three more tabs hold a sample of the ads themselves: 27,845 Google, 15,503 LinkedIn, and 3,596 Meta, with titles, formats, links, and run dates.
Where does the ad data come from?
Public ad libraries: the Meta Ad Library, LinkedIn Ad Library, and Google Ad Transparency Center, pulled through the Adyntel API.
Is this ad spend or ad activity?
Activity. We report active ad counts and creative, not budget or spend estimates.
How current is it?
This snapshot was pulled in April 2026. Ad activity changes daily, so live lookups through Adyntel will differ from the static file.
Can I filter or sort it?
Yes. Every record carries platform counts, totals, six-month change, batch, industry, and business type.