Forward Founder Story
Startmate profiles Forward, a startup founded by three 21-year-olds automating private credit origination, stating it is backed by Y Combinator and Australian funds, with early revenue and US fund adoption.
Accelerator · 24 deals
San Francisco
Every published round YC took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted, and a place in one of its own programs is under Cohorts.
Everyone YC has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
| Member | Program | Announced | Cheque | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamgee | Summer 2026 batch | 18 Aug 2026 | - | Dealroom, theunderbite.co |
| Alloovium | Y Combinator program | 5 Jun 2026 | - | Startup Daily, SmartCompany |
| Gutgutgoose | Y Combinator program | 5 Jun 2026 | - | Startup Daily, SmartCompany |
| GrazeMate | YC W26 | 2 Feb 2026 | - | SmartCompany, Startup Daily |
| Go1 | Y Combinator | 2015 | $1.4m | Our Innovation Fund (Mon 6 Jun 2022), Our Innovation Fund (Mon 21 Jun 2021) |
| Go1 | - | 2015 | $1.4m | Forbes Australia, Startup Daily (Thu 7 Sep 2023), Startup Daily (Fri 13 Aug 2021), TechCrunch Australia |
Companies YC has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alloovium | 5 Jun 2026, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Cyble | 11 Apr 2021, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Elyos | 19 Jan 2026, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Gamgee | 18 Aug 2026, Accelerator | 3 | 1 | |
| Go1 | 2015, Accelerator | 5 | 2 | |
| GrazeMate | Drone toolkit for autonomous mustering and pasture analysis | 2 Feb 2026, Pre-seed | 2 | 2 |
| GreaseBoss | 1 Mar 2021, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| Gutgutgoose | 5 Jun 2026, Accelerator | 1 | 1 | |
| HEO | 4 Sep 2021, Seed | 2 | 1 | |
| Index | 11 Feb 2025, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Mindset Health | 14 Mar 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 0 | |
| Phonely | 2024 | 4 | 2 | |
| Pollinate | Jan 2026, Accelerator | 1 | 0 | |
| Sphere | 19 Nov 2025, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Starcloud | Mar 2026, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| Stralis Aircraft | 2024, Accelerator | 1 | 0 | |
| Strong Compute | 30 May 2022, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Volopay | 19 Jan 2021, Seed | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for YC, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies YC has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal YC did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel Gross | Lead of AI (former) | Crunchbase News |
| Tyler Bosmeny | Partner | SmartCompany, Startup Daily |
Stories naming YC. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Startmate profiles Forward, a startup founded by three 21-year-olds automating private credit origination, stating it is backed by Y Combinator and Australian funds, with early revenue and US fund adoption.
Billionaire Ed Craven backs Maincode's new venture arm, which takes half of each startup's equity in exchange for funding, salaries and AI access, aiming to build sovereign Australian AI companies across several industries.
Beaten Zone Venture Partners led a US$25 million Series B in HEO Robotics, which images other spacecraft, with the NRFC contributing $10 million; the piece also recalls earlier Series A and seed rounds.
Also Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·Space Connect·This Week in Australian Startups·Dynamic Business
Healthcare AI vendor Arintra has banked $25m in Series B funding, led by Define Ventures, as prior backers such as Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator and others return; total backing now stands at $51m.
Dog cancer vaccine startup Gamgee has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Founders Fund with Y Combinator, to speed clinical trials and product development for its AI-personalised canine vaccines.
Also trysignalbase.com
Bower, an Australian startup, has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by TEN13 with Admiralty Capital Group, Edale Capital and angel backers, funding ambient AI that captures laboratory work as structured research records.
Veterinary biotech Gamgee has raised a four million dollar seed round led by Founders Fund, launching from Y Combinator to develop personalised mRNA cancer vaccines for dogs.
Also newshub.medianet.com.au·Dealroom·thesaasnews.com·kucoin.com
Australian startups raised funds including Alloy Robotics, Farmbot and Atmo Biosciences. Firmus Technologies acquired Benmax while Tabcorp bought BetMakers. SafetyCulture rebranded to Mitti.
Ten13 led Bower's A$2m pre-seed round for a voice-first AI assistant that helps scientists capture lab observations hands-free, founded by a four-person team with backgrounds at Microsoft, Google and Atlassian.
Also Startup Daily
Solo developer Can announces his agent-management runtime Herdr has joined Y Combinator's F26 batch, intends to grow a small team, and will keep the open-source runtime free under an Apache licence.
Defense startup Singularity has surfaced from stealth, securing a large Series A co-led by two venture firms to scale production of affordable systems that counter cheap drones, with backing from several established investors.
Weekly roundup covering seven raises across the Tasman: Phonely's Series A, Pay.com.au's private placement, and rounds for Atomic Tessellator, Caruso, Deteqt, Clean Slate Clinic and Earthletica, worth roughly $72 million combined.
Also crane.vc
Weekly roundup of seven Australian and New Zealand startup raises totalling $17 million, including two startups entering Y Combinator, plus a new QuantX Labs board director and SmartrMail's earlier sale to Relay Commerce.
Phonely, a University of Melbourne spin-out now in San Francisco, has raised a US$16 million Series A with Base10 Partners leading and Y Combinator plus three customers joining.
FaBA profiles Pollinate, a Brisbane startup founded by Adeep Mitra and Corey Berther that uses AI to automate food supply chain workflows, tracing its path from a university food challenge to Y Combinator backing.
Blackbird's post explains why it led Elyos's Series A with PiLabs, YC and 468 Capital, profiling the AI phone-agent startup for trade businesses, its traction and its three founders.
Weekly agtech and foodtech roundup: several startup raises, BASF's purchase of AgBiTech, three new funds, a Bühler CEO appointment, Microsoft carbon-credit deals, and company shutdowns.
GrazeMate, a cattle-mustering drone startup founded by 19-year-old Sam Rogers, has raised $1.2m in a pre-seed round led by Y Combinator, with NextGen Ventures, Antler and Meat & Livestock Australia also taking part.
Folklore Ventures says its investee Sphere has secured US$20 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Y Combinator, Felicis and 20VC also in; Folklore backed Sphere at pre-seed.
Radium Capital article contrasts two aviation founders: Stralis Aircraft raised venture capital through Y Combinator, grants and R&D lending, while V-TOL Aerospace bootstrapped for two decades before sharing a federal grant.
Crunchbase News profiles 14 venture-backed companies its predictive models flag as likely IPO candidates, from Stripe to Sierra Space, recapping their funding histories, valuations and financial milestones.
Startup Daily profiles the thirteen startups joining Startmate's Winter '25 cohort, covering healthcare AI, agent tooling, recruitment tech, retail promotions, sexual health, water leak detection, VR haptics and ADHD robotics.
Earth AI's discovery of indium at a New South Wales tenement, with context on critical-mineral supply and a recap of its $20m Series B from Tamarack Global and Cantos Ventures.
Blackbird's investment note explains why it led Index's A$3.5 million seed round with Bain Capital Ventures, Y Combinator and industry angels, profiling the planning platform built by two former Canva and Atlassian staff.
LaunchVic case study profiling Mindset Health, a maker of hypnotherapy apps, and founders Alex and Chris Naoumidis through Startmate, Y Combinator and the 30X30 program.
Folklore Ventures Q&A with Strong Compute founder Ben Sand covering its enterprise AI compute offering, community events, grant programs, hiring and his take on how AI market assumptions have shifted.
Build Club's inaugural accelerator has graduated its AI startup cohort after six weeks, with DoryAI, Unsloth AI, Mary Technology and Verve chosen for a San Francisco tour pitching Silicon Valley investors.
Roundup of three Australian raises: telehealth player Updoc landed $20m from listed investor Bailador, AI receptionist builder Phonely joined Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch with US$500k, and Citizen Wolf crowdfunded over $380,000 via Birchal.
Also Startup Daily
Phonely, a Melbourne maker of AI receptionists, has secured US$500,000 from Y Combinator to fund team growth and new languages; shorter items note an AI board advisor, a government AI program, and OpenAI news.
Also SmartCompany
Eleven companies reached billion-dollar valuations in April 2024, led by Xaira Therapeutics' $1 billion Series A; Rubrik and Ibotta listed on the NYSE, and several existing unicorns raised at higher valuations.
Also Crunchbase News
Australian job-simulation edtech Forage has been bought by US education company EAB on undisclosed terms; the story also recalls its accelerator days and earlier venture raises.
Also Startup Daily
Ten13's year-end post recaps nine new portfolio additions, follow-on support for existing holdings, the Mr Yum and Me&U merger, Go1's Blinkist acquisition, Smileyscope's FDA clearance, and community events.
Also OIF Ventures portfolio·Ten13 portfolio·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·TechCrunch Venture
Queensland's QVCDF, managed by QIC, will fund five accelerator programs to ready over 160 local startups for venture capital investment across two years.
Antler Australia investor memo profiling pre-seed sales-financing startup Geniepay, founded by Sajid Bokhari and Eric Ding, covering its backing, beta customers and pitch competition wins.
Profiles three founders: Kismet's Mark Woodland ($4m pre-seed for disability-services software), Forage's Tom Brumskill and Pasha Rayan (job-simulation platform, Series A and B), and Diolog's Amy Benson (self-funded investor-communications startup planning a seed round).
Weekly roundup covering fresh raises by four Australian startups: Ignition's banking facility, HEO Robotics' Series A, Laronix's seed round and Haast's pre-seed, plus a past ACT grant.
Also Australian FinTech·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Wholesale Investor
Sydney spacetech firm HEO Robotics has closed a $12m Series A led by AirTree Ventures, with Salus, In-Q-Tel, Y Combinator and angels also in, as federal cutbacks hit Australian space programs.
Also Business News Australia·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Crunchbase data analysis ranking the busiest cleantech investors, led by Lowercarbon Capital, and citing large sustainability rounds at Loam Bio, Our Next Energy, Ohmium and Palmetto Clean Technology.