From moon hotels to cattle herding: 8 startups investors chased at YC Demo Day | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. Investors have flocked to Y Combinator’s Demo Days for years to get their hands on promising startups building cool tech. After all, the accelerator has produced some of the biggest tech companies in the world, from Airbnb and Reddit to Dropbox, Zapier, and Stripe. That’s why we make it a point to keep an eye on the event to spot the most interesting companies from each batch. As I’ve been doing nearly every quarter now that the accelerator has moved to four cohorts a year, I asked nearly a dozen investors which startups were most in demand at Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 Demo Day earlier this week. To ensure our list included truly sought-after standouts, a company had to be flagged as a “fave” by at least two different venture capital investors to make the cut. As for valuations, I’m hearing that at least a couple startups have raised funds at a $100 million price tag, though notably, those startups are already bringing in run-rate revenue of $1 million or more. Even for the less