You asked about Robotic Surgery
230 people built something like it. 30 are gone.
That is 14% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 12 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-06-01 | A new way of seeing inside the human body. · illuminant.ai | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | We make AI technology for Robotic and AR Surgeries · algosurg.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | Advancing surgical precision through safe electrical stimulation. · allotropemed.com | acquired |
| 2016-01-01 | We make robots for biologists. · opentrons.com | still up |
| 2017-06-01 | Transforming cities and rural areas through AV transit and technology · maymobility.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCAerones Robotics for wind turbine maintenance. · aerones.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | AI + Robotics for the Built World · geckorobotics.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | 3D printing beautiful, high-quality, and sustainable homes. · mightybuildings.com | gone |
| 2020-01-01 | Robotic Process Automation and Document Processing Platform · electroneek.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCEncord The data layer for physical AI · encord.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCSRTX Powering a better future for textiles. · srtxlabs.com | still up |
| 2021-07-21 | foxglove.dev | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | Physical AI data lab · humanarchive.ai | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Robots for longer-lasting, better-tasting fish at scale. · shinkei.systems | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | To make food a renewable resource, for everyone · inevitabletech.com | gone |
| 2023-11-11 | gptroad.com | unverified |
| 2020-01-01 | Robotic Automation for cancer diagnostics - Robotic Microscopes &… · morphlelabs.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Software orchestrated mass production of plastics · atomic.industries | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Physical AI for Warehouses and Factories · fluxauto.ai | still up |
| 2014-06-01 | Quantum coherent supercomputing. · rigetti.com | acquired |
| 2019-01-01 | Unlocking the utility of genomics for the world. · voltalabs.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCHedgehog Building robotic mushroom farms · hedgehogfoods.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCSoraban AI tax workflow platform for accounting firms · soraban.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | Orangewood Labs makes worlds most affordable and easiest AI robot arms · orangewood.co | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Making all ships robots. · fleetzero.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCOverview Reshaping industrial quality with AI, hardware, and software · overview.ai | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Robots that automate the everyday tasks of microbiologists. · reshapebiotech.com | still up |
| 2017-01-01 | YCAON3D Additive Manufacturing with advanced materials · aon3d.com | still up |
| 2016-06-01 | Robotic production capacity for the pharma manufacturing industry · multiplylabs.com | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | Supplying America's Industrial Base · noxmetals.co | still up |
| 2017-06-01 | YCSkyways Creating a new form of air transportation to advance our civilization · skyways.com | still up |
| 2017-01-01 | YCShipamax Simple, end-to-end automation for logistics orgs · shipamax.com | acquired |
| 2020-01-01 | YCSOMATIC Bathroom cleaning robots for office buildings. · getsomatic.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | Exoskeletons to help people walk, starting with children · trexorobotics.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Makes guilt-free plastics from food waste · genecis.co | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | Mass-produced AI strike systems and Counter-UAS · isengardindustries.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | Autonomous drones to help warehouses scan inventory. · corvus-robotics.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | YCTeleo Supervised Autonomous Heavy Equipment · teleo.ai | acquired |
| 2019-06-01 | We build robots for dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs. · lucidbots.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | Practical and delightful home robots · weaverobotics.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | YCMytos Robotic human cell manufacturing · mytos.bio | still up |
| 2014-06-01 | YCAlchemy Nanotechnology-enabled coatings for automotive and defence sectors · alchemynano.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Robots that build solar farms · chargerobotics.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | General Autonomy for Industrial Vehicles · polymathrobotics.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCFaction Driverless electric vehicles at a fraction of the cost of a car. · faction.us | gone |
| 2020-01-01 | Automated tooth cutting for dentists using imaging, AI and robotics · perceptive.io | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCArchForm Replacing orthodontic braces with our clear aligner and software · archform.com | still up |
| 2025-01-01 | Software Enabled CNC Parts Supplier · forgeautomation.ca | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | AI-native Robotics · nexterarobotics.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Underwater robotic vehicles that collect battery metals responsibly · impossiblemetals.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | YCRoboTire Robotire is automating vehicle maintenance for today and future… · robotire.com | gone |
| 2017-01-01 | AWS for manufacturing. · voodoomfg.com | gone |
| 2018-06-01 | YCJITX Automatic circuit board design. · jitx.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCIntuned Code-first scrapers and RPAs — built and maintained by AI · intunedhq.com | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | Autonomous trucks to fully automate long-haul freight shipping · marsauto.com | still up |
| 2018-06-01 | Robots that feed the world - robotic harvesting and analytics · fourgrowers.com | still up |
| 2015-01-01 | The robotic cloud laboratory for the life sciences. · transcriptic.com | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | The operating system for factory production lines · aisupervision.com | gone |
| 2018-06-01 | We build artificial intelligence processors inspired by the brain. · rain-neuromorphics.com | acquired |
| 2019-01-01 | We create automation technology for the cannabis industry. · sortingrobotics.com | 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.