By 2023, three in four YC startups had YC as their first investor — up 24 points from 2022, but only two of six requested years can be measured

Asked:

“show me the proportion of yc startups that go accepter into yc with and without raising any prior funding (i.e. yc being their first investor vs having investros already) give me breakdown year by year”

Asked (follow-up):

“find the data and build the report for all years 2021-2026.”

This audit covers YC-funded companies (not applicants) across the six calendar years 2021–2026. A comparable whole-batch “raised money before YC” statistic exists publicly only for 2022 (654 companies across W22 and S22) and 2023 (511 across W23 and S23). 2021, 2024 and 2025 have no public whole-batch figure; 2026 offers only a non-comparable lower bound for W26, and S26 had not happened as of the research date (2026-09-15). Counts are estimates from YC's rounded percentages.

Where the split is knowable: 2022 vs 2023, with the four batches behind it

YC first investor (no prior funding) Had prior investors

Coverage across the six requested years

2021

Unavailable

No public whole-batch pre-YC funding share found.

2022

Exact

W22 and S22 covered by official YC batch posts.

2023

Exact

W23 and S23 covered by official YC batch posts.

2024

Unavailable

Official W24 post gives batch size (260 from 27,000+ applications) but not the metric; no comparable S24/F24 statistic found.

2025

Unavailable

No public whole-batch share found across W25/X25/S25/F25 searches.

2026

Partial lower bound

W26: 3 of 199 companies (1.5%) identified with substantial pre-YC funding — a lower bound, not comparable. S26 had not occurred by the research date.

The YC-first share rose from 52% of 654 companies in 2022 (≈340) to 76% of 511 in 2023 (≈389), a 24-point swing away from pre-funded startups. ycombinator.com

W22 was the peak of pre-funding: 55% of its 414 companies had raised money before YC — the only batch here where pre-funded startups were the majority. ycombinator.com

S23 flipped hardest the other way: YC reported 81% “had never raised a dime”, leaving 19% with prior investors among 229 companies. ycombinator.com

For W26, an independent analysis found only 3 of 199 companies with substantial pre-YC funding (Ndea $43M, Mantis $7M, Beacon Health $5.4M) — a disclosed-funding lower bound, not YC's broad measure. extruct.ai

The batch-level inputs

Batch	Companies funded	Prior investors	YC first investor	YC's wording	Source

Method: YC official “Meet the batch” posts for W22 (n=414), S22 (240), W23 (282), S23 (229); annual splits weight batch percentages by funded-company counts, so counts are estimates from rounded percentages. Denominator is YC-funded companies, not applicants — this is not an acceptance-rate analysis. “YC first investor” = complement of YC's “raised money before YC” or its “never raised” wording; non-dilutive or undisclosed funding may blur the line. 2021, 2024, 2025 lack any comparable public statistic; the 2026 W26 figure (3/199 with substantial pre-YC funding, per Extruct) is a lower bound and excluded from the chart. A Lobster Capital count of 13 W26 funding rounds was excluded as it can include rounds during the batch. Research date 2026-09-15. 15 evidence rows across 4 result sets; duplicate URL variants deduplicated to one observation per batch.

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