11 startups from YC Demo Day that investors are talking about

Summary

At Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday, nearly every presenting startup had something to do with AI — they’re either developing AI agents or creating tools to facilitate their development. Indeed, several founders seem to be taking a leaf out of the pages of several successful AI startups: about half a dozen startups were presenting variations of “Cursor for X.” For example, Den is building a “Cursor for knowledge workers,” and Vessence is on its way to make a “Cursor for lawyers.” It wasn’t all only about AI, though. We noticed several startups are working on robotics, which seems to be having a bit of a revival at the moment. Below are some of the startups that caught both investors’ and our attention. Anvil What it does: SEO for LLMs Why it’s a fave: How people search for content is changing, with folks using various AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity to find content. Understandably, brands need to find a way to increase their visibility on these platforms. Anvil claims it helps brands measure, optimize and increase their presence on these AI tools. Atum Works What it does: Builds 3D chips Why it’s a fave: Transistors aren’t getting smaller as fast as they used to, so Atum’s founders propose the best new way to put more transistors on a chip, and therefore increase processing power, is to stack them in three dimensions. Investors told me that Atum’s vision is so revolutionary that the company has a chance to become the next NVIDIA. Auctor What it does: Automates enterprise software implementation Why it’s a fave: The startup says prominent software vendors like SAP, ServiceNow, AWS and Box have already reached out to use Auctor’s solution themselves and potentially for help with integrating software at customer sites. Cactus What it does: AI copilot for solopreneurs Why it’s a fave: Cactus says people who run businesses all by themselves are often too busy to pursue new opportunities. The startup says its AI bot can take off some of the load b...