Investor Profile
Y Combinator — Cybersecurity Alumni
10 cybersecurity companies tracked from YC batches S15 — W23. Combined funding: $955M+. Includes compliance, identity, secrets management, and data-security categories.
About Y Combinator
Y Combinator is the world's most prolific startup accelerator, having funded over 4,000 companies since 2005. Notable alumni include Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Coinbase, and DoorDash. YC invests $500K at the seed stage in exchange for 7% equity, with the YC Continuity Fund providing follow-on capital at Series A and beyond.
In cybersecurity, YC has been particularly active in developer security tools, compliance automation, and identity/auth. The accelerator's strong technical network gives cybersecurity alumni a distribution advantage through bottom-up developer adoption.
Founded
2005
HQ
San Francisco
Cyber Alumni
10+
Total Raised
$955M+
YC Cybersecurity Alumni
Cybersecurity companies that went through Y Combinator, sorted by total funding raised.
| Company | Batch | Focus | Total Raised | Latest Stage | Status | HQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanta Largest YC cybersecurity exit candidate. Serves 7,000+ customers. Acquired Aviator in 2025. | S18 | Automated compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA) | $352M | Series C | Active — valued at $2.5B | San Francisco, CA |
| Teleport Open-source access plane for infrastructure. Strong DevOps / platform engineering adoption. | S15 | Identity-native infrastructure access | $169M | Series C | Active — valued at ~$1.1B | Oakland, CA |
| Clerk Auth platform with embeddable UI components. Competes with Auth0 and Descope. | W21 | Authentication & user management for developers | $55M | Series B | Active | San Francisco, CA |
| WorkOS Enterprise-ready auth APIs. AuthKit launched 2024. | W19 | Enterprise auth (SSO, SCIM, directory sync) | $122M | Series B | Active — valued at $1.1B | San Francisco, CA |
| Stytch | W21 | Passwordless authentication APIs | $131M | Series B | Active | San Francisco, CA |
| Pangea Security building blocks for developers. Founded by former Palo Alto Networks CTO. | W22 | Security platform-as-a-service (Auth, Vault, Intel) | $44M | Series A | Active | Palo Alto, CA |
| Bearer Open-source SAST tool focused on sensitive data flows. | S19 | Data security & privacy code scanner | $8M | Seed | Active — open-source focus | Paris, France |
| Lumos App access reviews & lifecycle management. Named Gartner Cool Vendor. | S22 | Identity governance & access management | $44M | Series A | Active | San Francisco, CA |
| Infisical Open-source alternative to HashiCorp Vault for secrets. | W23 | Open-source secrets management | $18M | Series A | Active — 12K+ GitHub stars | San Francisco, CA |
| Detect | S20 | Vulnerability management & asset discovery | $12M | Series A | Active | Boston, MA |
This list may not be exhaustive. Some companies with cybersecurity features may be categorized under adjacent sectors (DevTools, infra). Data sourced from YC public alumni directory, Crunchbase, and press releases. Last updated May 2026.
YC Cybersecurity Alumni by Category
Identity & Authentication
4 companies$352M
WorkOS, Stytch, Clerk, Pangea
Compliance & Governance
2 companies$396M
Vanta, Lumos
Infrastructure Access
1 company$169M
Teleport
Data Security & Privacy
1 company$8M
Bearer
Secrets Management
1 company$18M
Infisical
Vulnerability Management
1 company$12M
Detect
Batch Timeline
When cybersecurity companies entered Y Combinator.
Last updated: May 19, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Disclaimer
This page is an independent database of publicly known Y Combinator cybersecurity alumni and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator. Data is sourced from YC's public alumni directory, Crunchbase, and press releases. The list may not be exhaustive. Not investment advice.