You asked about Data Engineering
332 people built something like it. 30 are gone.
That is 10% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 21 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-06-01 | YCScale AI Data-centric infrastructure to accelerate the development of AI · scale.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | AI + Robotics for the Built World · geckorobotics.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | YCAirbyte Context layer for production-grade AI agents · airbyte.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Compliant-Ready AI for the Enterprise · dynamo.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCLanceDB Open-source, serverless vectordb for production-scale generative AI · lancedb.com | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | Accelerate Medication Access with AI · runtrellis.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCauthzed Authorization Infrastructure securing AI at OpenAI, Zoom, & more · authzed.com | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | YCDatafold Automating manual and repetitive data engineering tasks with AI · datafold.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCSecoda Secoda is the AI layer for your Analytics · secoda.co | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YCEntangl Find & resolve issues in data center engineering & operations using AI · entangl.com | still up |
| 2025-01-01 | YCHUD Platform and marketplace for RL environments and AI data · hud.ai | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YCZeit AI The autonomous data engineer for the mid-market · zeit-ai.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCLamin Open data platform for traceable, multimodal AI · lamin.ai | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | Applied AI Data Research Lab Encoding Human Expertise into Machines… · useocular.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Build better computer vision models by building better datasets · segments.ai | acquired |
| 2023-06-01 | YCCedalio AI agents that automate AP, procurement, and finance · cedalio.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCLume Speed up customer implementation with AI · lume.ai | acquired |
| 2026-06-01 | YCMarengo AI-Native Engineering Firm designing Data Centers · marengox.com | still up |
| 2025-01-01 | YCNitrode Frontier AI research to advance game development · nitrode.com | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | YCCorvera The AI sales agent for CPG brands · corvera.ai | still up |
| 2025-09-01 | YCVelvet Expressive conversational AI · velvetlab.ai | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | Robots, parts & RL envs & evals - delivered in 48 hrs / pickup in SF. · roboticscenter.ai | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | YCDataland AI agents for customer support. · dataland.io | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | YCkater.ai Deliver complete data analysis from a single question · kater.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCVersable AI powered product description enhancement for the auto parts industry · versableai.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YCAluna Data for biomedical AI · alunadata.com | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | Reliable and safe data engineering and data science agents · alkera.ai | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | YCOsseus The frontier data platform for aligned health and biological AI · osseus.ai | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCClear The unbiased AI and data layer for skin health. · getclearapp.com | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | Foundational infrastructure for Physical AI · hebbianrobotics.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCMidplane The safety layer between AI agents and your database · midplane.ai | still up |
| 2024-09-01 | YCMelder AI formulas and document support for Microsoft Excel · melder.io | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | The AI workspace for software implementations · datafruit.ai | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | AI-Native Data Center Engineering · getirongrid.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCPatterns Next-Gen Financial Analysis and Reporting with AI Agents · patterns.app | gone |
| 2026-06-01 | YCMarkov Expert computer-use data for frontier AI labs · markovstudios.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | AI Teammates for Data Tasks · tableflow.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Glisten AI automatically categorizes and tags e-commerce product data. · glisten.ai | gone |
| 2026-09-01 | AI Data Analyst for fast-growing teams · databuddy.cc | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | YCPanels Audio Data for AI Labs · usepanels.com | still up |
| 2022-01-10 | databar.ai | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCSendbird The AI agent that doesn’t just support, it delights. · sendbird.com | still up |
| 2023-09-13 | docs.lantern.dev | still up |
| 2023-08-07 | chainforge.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-31 | ideas-generator.com | gone |
| 2021-01-01 | YCEncord The data layer for physical AI · encord.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCCoLab Human and AI design review for hardware · colabsoftware.com | still up |
| 2022-05-16 | ortto.com | still up |
| 2022-05-07 | layer.ai | still up |
| 2023-08-11 | cambioml.com | still up |
| 2022-02-01 | ango.ai | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCDeepgram Building foundational AI for speech transcription and understanding. · deepgram.com | still up |
| 2022-06-15 | deep-talk.ai | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | Physical AI data lab · humanarchive.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | AI-native operating system for home service businesses · broccoli.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | Superb AI provides end-to-end computer vision MLOps platform · superb-ai.com | still up |
| 2023-12-06 | lume.ai | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCAnakin One API to get clean data from any website for your AI agents at scale · anakin.io | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCVerihubs AI-powered Deepfake Detection · verihubs.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | YCDatasaur Datasaur builds private AI/agents for enterprise/government · datasaur.ai | still up |
How this compares
Y Combinator reports its own outcomes, including acquisitions. The other two are judged by asking the domain, so they are not measured the same way and are never averaged together.
Older launches have had longer to die, so this slope is expected. A year that broke it would mean something is wrong with the checking.
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.