YC W22 Batch — Full List of Companies and Outcomes

The outcomes from W22 are consequently bifurcated: companies that raised quickly in April-May 2022 often secured favorable terms that insulated them for 2-3 years, while companies that took longer to close found themselves fundraising into a rapidly worsening environment.

• Batch size: ~198 companies
• Demo day: April 2022
• Context: Final months of the peak funding cycle before correction
• AI proportion: ~12% (pre-LLM baseline)
• International proportion: ~36%
• Fundraising window: Compressed — the correction began in May-June 2022
• Defining characteristic: Fast movers in April 2022 raised at peak terms; slow movers faced a dramatically different market

Software and Developer Tools

Notable W22 Developer Tools companies:

B2B SaaS

Notable W22 B2B SaaS companies:

AI and Machine Learning

Notable W22 AI companies:

Healthcare

Notable W22 Healthcare companies:

Climate and Energy

Notable W22 Climate companies:

Fintech

Notable W22 Fintech companies:

Indian-Origin W22 Companies

The April 2022 Fundraising Window

W22 demo day in April 2022 occurred in what turned out to be the final weeks of the peak funding environment. The NASDAQ peaked in November 2021 and was already down approximately 20% by April 2022. However, seed-stage funding had not yet fully reflected the correction — there was a 6-9 month lag between public market declines and seed market contraction.

The result: W22 companies that closed their seed rounds in April-June 2022 benefited from terms that would not be available again until 2024-2025. Companies that took 3-4 months to close found themselves negotiating with investors who were already applying a 40%+ valuation discount to comparable companies.

W22 fundraising outcome distribution:

• Raised within 60 days of demo day: ~40% of batch
• Raised within 120 days: ~65% of batch
• Still fundraising at 6 months: ~20% of batch (most faced significantly worse terms)
• Did not raise institutional round: ~15% of batch

W22 Outcomes by 2025

The W22 Open-Source Pattern Continues

Like S22, W22 produced a cluster of open-source developer infrastructure companies that continued building developer communities through the 2022-2023 funding correction. Graphite (code review) and Mintlify (documentation) built strong developer communities through 2023 that translated into enterprise revenue by 2024.

Solugen — W22's Deeptech Outlier

Solugen is W22's most unusual success story — a carbon-negative chemicals company that raised $500M+ by 2025 to scale its hydrogen peroxide production technology. As one of YC's most capital-intensive portfolio companies, Solugen demonstrates that YC's investment thesis extends to deeptech companies where the capital requirements are orders of magnitude higher than typical SaaS.

W22 is the clearest example in recent YC batch history of how fundraising timing within a batch can determine a company's 3-year trajectory. Two companies with identical fundamentals — same MRR, same retention, same team quality — could have dramatically different outcomes based solely on whether they closed in April 2022 or October 2022.

The timing lesson from W22:

Companies that raised quickly after W22 demo day secured 18-24 months of runway at the peak valuation multiples. That extended runway gave them time to build product depth and revenue in 2022-2023 — positioning them for Series A raises in 2024-2025 when the market had recovered and they had 2 years of operating history.

Companies that took longer to close faced a compressing market and either accepted lower valuations, extended bridge rounds from angels, or ran lean on existing capital. Some of these companies ultimately built stronger businesses because the capital constraint forced discipline — but the path was harder.

The application to founders today:

When YC accepts your company, move on fundraising immediately after demo day. The market window for post-demo day fundraising is typically 4-8 weeks — the period when YC attention is highest and investor appetite peaks. W22 is the clearest case study in why speed matters.