[ { "id": 653, "name": "Backpack", "slug": "backpack", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "/company/thumb/missing.png", "website": "http://backpackbang.com", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Shopping? Buy overseas. \nTraveling? Earn some extra cash.\nLet backpack help you save that high shipping cost or earn a little extra.\n\nBackpack is a peer-to-peer platform that connects travelers and shoppers to give people access to products across markets in all continents. \nEach backpacker, regardless of their role as a carrier or a shopper, follows a simple four-step process to either earn or save money from their backpacking experience.\nTravelers share their travel information and specify what kind of items they want to carry. Then they wait to get a \"backpack request\" and ask their price. Finally, they confirm the deal, buy the items, deliver them and earn money. Shoppers on the other hand, search items from their favorite websites and fill out the item description. Then they give their location and find a traveler coming to their city. Finally they \"request backpack\" and confirm the deal. Within days they can get the product and save money. \n\nbackpack is founded with a vision to provide every citizen of the world with a choice; the choice of buying organic, authentic, and cost effective products with minimum friction.\nWhether the product is state-of-the-art consumer electronics, exotic pashmina from the south-east, or even medication that are rare in some parts of the world and not so rare in others - we promise ourselves to get those products to your doorsteps. We would like to reject the counterfeits, we would like to reject the almost-originals, most importantly, we would like to not pay the heavy expense incurred, most of which we deem to be superfluous. Help us make a better, more original globalized world.", "one_liner": "Marketplace to get stuff from overseas", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Home and Personal", "launched_at": 1398907592, "tags": [ "Marketplace", "International" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2014", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Home and Personal" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/backpack", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2014/backpack.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": null, "x_url": null, "fb_url": null, "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/backpack", "github_url": null, "logo_url": null, "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 41669, "full_name": "Fahim Aziz", "title": "Founder/CEOM", "founder_bio": "", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/fahimmaziz", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/96a74e1c4f4352aa6684d1fe37802d6a3cbbbc02.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 1529, "name": "ZipX", "slug": "zipx", "former_names": [ "Trusu", "ZipX", "Trusu" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ac1a9b419c6e0296d9979a3dfcc7b192613d95ea.png", "website": "https://zipx.com/", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA; Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong", "long_description": "We are a group of expats in Hong Kong that want easy and affordable access to buy the products we love from back home. Snacks, foods, health products, and other daily essentials that we miss are either not found in Hong Kong, or are too expensive to buy. We were faced with bad alternatives such as overpriced grocery stores, or expensive package forwarding companies.\r\n\r\nWe believe that with the help of technology, anyone should be able to buy anything from around the world at an affordable price. We are on a mission to make international commerce seamless.", "one_liner": "We allow anyone in South East Asia to instantly order any product…", "team_size": 1, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Food and Beverage", "launched_at": 1478741416, "tags": [ "E-Commerce", "International" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2017", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Food and Beverage" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "Hong Kong", "America / Canada", "East Asia" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/zipx", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2017/zipx.json", "year_founded": null, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/trusuHK/", "cb_url": "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/trusu", "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/ac1a9b419c6e0296d9979a3dfcc7b192613d95ea.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 92719, "full_name": "Osman Mendoza", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "I previously co-founded Trusu (YC W17), which exited in 2019. Undergrad at Stanford. \nI’ve spent most of my career building around Asia–Latin America trade, and now focusing on cross-border payments, stablecoins, and financial infrastructure, with experience scaling startups and expanding across international markets.", "is_active": false, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozmendoza/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e6add6528448c86b3cd54061fe6b620cdf8f4819.jpg" }, { "user_id": 5392, "full_name": "James Steinberg", "title": "Founder/Managing Director", "founder_bio": "Darefail.com \nBuilding AI & Robots in Public", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/darefail/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/darefailed", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9fd05c0205f1c5141ed3342922b5bd038f208e6a.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 24037, "name": "Levro", "slug": "levro", "former_names": [ "Novo" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3c701b2b04808644316217d356d3d16dfbf3e281.png", "website": "https://www.levro.com", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Levro is a multicurrency account and global payments platform for businesses. We help US & international companies hold, convert, and pay 30+ currencies. Our exchange at rates are 40-90% lower than banks and FX services like Wise. We also offer free currency risk management, recipient onboarding, automated multicurrency reconciliation, and wire tracking.\r\n\r\nIf you have international customers, employee payroll, vendors, or bulk payouts to different countries please send us a note! founders@levro.com", "one_liner": "Multicurrency account & international payments for businesses", "team_size": 12, "industry": "Fintech", "subindustry": "Fintech -> Banking and Exchange", "launched_at": 1626366454, "tags": [ "Fintech", "Payments", "Finance", "B2B", "International" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2021", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Fintech", "Banking and Exchange" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": [ { "question": "How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)", "answer": "Abeer & Cathy were batchmates from YC W14!" } ], "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/levro", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2021/levro.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/levro/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/3c701b2b04808644316217d356d3d16dfbf3e281.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 5629, "full_name": "Cathy Han", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Cathy Han is the Co-founder & CEO of Levro, a multicurrency neobank for businesses. Levro provides US accounts that hold up to 34 currencies to help companies pay teams, vendors, and receive revenue from customers internationally.\n\nPrior to Levro, Cathy co-founded 42 Technologies (YC W14), a big data company with retail customers around the globe. Cathy holds a Finance degree from the University of British Columbia & MBA from Harvard Business School.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathyhan/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/cathyxhan", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/ce94c45f2ad3be10953efcc9eaa603b08dd0d0ca.jpg" }, { "user_id": 466, "full_name": "Abeer Agrawal", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Prior to Levro, Abeer was the Co-founder & CTO of Theorem (YC W14), a machine learning enabled hedge fund which he built to over $1bn+ in AUM. Abeer holds degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/abeera/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/abeerag", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b1c11e9cdc5a6d8c029444e601da4dec320e0d60.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 29343, "name": "Infinity", "slug": "infinity", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6d4375431e4067cbd0c409f02ba66c5924b3c146.png", "website": "https://www.infinityapp.in/", "all_locations": "Bengaluru, KA, India", "long_description": "Infinity is a banking and payments platform for cross-border businesses in India. We help our customers make cross-border payments that are 70% cheaper than traditional methods and earn income on idle cash by investing in government securities.", "one_liner": "Business banking for cross-border SMBs & Startups", "team_size": 15, "industry": "Fintech", "subindustry": "Fintech -> Payments", "launched_at": 1706317593, "tags": [ "Fintech", "Payments", "B2B", "Investing", "International" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Fintech", "Payments" ], "regions": [ "India", "South Asia" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/infinity", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/infinity.json", "year_founded": 2023, "city": "Bengaluru", "country": "IN", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/infinityinvest/", "x_url": "https://x.com/Infinityapp_in", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6d4375431e4067cbd0c409f02ba66c5924b3c146.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tom Blomfield", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tom-blomfield" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1347097, "full_name": "Sourav Choraria", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Sourav is the founder & CEO of Infinity, a business banking platform for cross-border SMBs. Prior to Infinity, Sourav co-founded ClinMD(2016), healthcare data analytics company. Sourav was former head of growth at Paytm Money, India's largest wealth management platform and scaled it to 20 million MAU. He also launched India's first FD-backed secured credit card and scaled it to 100,000 users in 1 year.\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/sourav-choraria-9b389776", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/631281fa8a93eec3dd427765fff443c446ec2092.jpg" }, { "user_id": 224267, "full_name": "Sidharth Choraria", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Was previously an Amazon engineer and PM working on Appstore. Launched Amazon Appstore IAP module (equivalent to Google Billing Library) used by app developers to monetise digital goods. Developed an instant electronic payment system to pay out app developers across 135 countries. Founding engineer of Paytm Travel & Platform Engineer at MakeMyTrip,developing systems to handle 100M daily requests. CS grad from Birla Institute of Technology & MBA in Finance from Indian School of Business.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidharth-choraria-25411b65/details/experience/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/sidharth9932", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bc1f097e9a8afca2f398a44cc546a741582b4d32.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 75959, "title": "Software Engineer - Backend", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/infinity/jobs/OFwxm4z-software-engineer-backend", "location": "Bengaluru, KA, IN / Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Backend", "salary_range": "₹1M - ₹2M INR", "equity_range": "0.20% - 2.00%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [ "Amazon Web Services (AWS)", "Java" ] } ], "news": [ { "title": "[Exclusive] Y-Combinator-backed Infinity bags $1.9M in pre-seed funding | YourStory", "url": "https://yourstory.com/2025/02/exclusive-y-combinator-cross-border-payments-fintech-startup-infinity-bags-pre-seed-funding", "date": "Feb 05, 2025" }, { "title": "Infinity: Business banking platform Infinity secures maiden funding from Y Combinator and others - The Economic Times", "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/business-banking-platform-infinity-secures-maiden-funding-from-y-combinator-and-others/articleshow/116166893.cms?from=mdr", "date": "Dec 10, 2024" }, { "title": "Cross-border fintech stands out in Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 cohort | TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/05/cross-border-fintech-y-combinator-demo-day/", "date": "Apr 05, 2024" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 87402, "title": "Infinity - Simplifying global payments for Indian businesses", "tagline": "Receive international payments with - Zero fx margin. No hidden fees. 1-day settlement.", "body": "**TL;DR:**\n\nWhether you’re a SaaS startup managing payouts to Indian contractors or a growing business sending vendor payments to India or Operating in US Parent Indian subsidiary model, Infinity’s cross-border payments platform offers:\n\n* **Transparent, real-time FX rates.**\n* **Significantly lower fees compared to traditional banks and other providers.**\n* **Same-day settlements.**\n* **Payment Tracking / Notifications**\n* **Seamless compliance for businesses (e.g., invoicing, tax reporting).**\n\n### The Problem\n\nThe US-India payment corridor is one of the busiest globally, yet businesses face slow processing times, high fees, and hidden charges. For startups and growing companies, these inefficiencies can be a real bottleneck. In general _for every dollar a business moves from the US to India, **business loses 3-5%**_**.**\n\nOne of the primary issues with FX transactions is the lack of transparency regarding the total cost of executing payments. These costs often include:\n\n1. Wire transfer fees\n2. Correspondent bank fees\n3. Currency conversion fees\n4. Intermediary fees, among others\n\nWhile some **_providers may highlight lower fees in one category, they often compensate with higher charges in another,_** resulting in minimal or no real savings.\n\nAlso, **global payments are slow with no visibility** on the fund movement.\n\nIn the majority of instances, international bank transfers are facilitated via the SWIFT network. This network ensures the transmission of your payment to its intended recipient. Nevertheless, the path isn't always direct. Certain payments may be routed through intermediaries, often referred to as correspondent banks, akin to making multiple connecting flights before reaching your final destination.\\\n\\\n**Solution**\\\nIntroducing [Infinity](https://youtu.be/N9sdLr5QUig?si=uJPFxXZxH39au9Ht)!\n\n\\\nStreamline global customers and suppliers’ payments with local accounts.\n\n**1) Multi-currency accounts - one platform:** Easily receive funds in major currencies to facilitate transactions with overseas suppliers and customers.\n\n**2) Flat Fee - with zero FX markup:** Be fully transparent about the charges you incur. Receive a comprehensive breakdown of fees before each transaction to avoid any surprises.\n\n**3) Fast, same-day international money transfer:** Track your payment in real-time.\n\n**4) Instant remittance certificate:** You move money. Infinity will take care of compliance.\\\n\\\n**Asks**\n\nAre you dealing with cross-border operations?\n\n* **Try out Infinity** at — your first payment is on us!\n* [Schedule a meeting](https://calendly.com/sourav9091/) — We’d love to learn more about your global business challenges and how we can help.\n* **Email us** at [founders@infinityapp.in](mailto:founders@cuckoo.so)\n\n\\\n**😎 Team**\n\nSourav and Sidharth are siblings. This is their second startup together. Back in 2016, they co-founded health tech startup ClinMD.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=87402&key=user_uploads/224267/5a1859ad-8620-4934-bce6-2e46693802e0)\n\n[Sourav](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sourav-choraria-9b389776/) was Head of the growth and product team at Paytm Money (India's largest wealth management platform). He also successfully launched India's first FD-backed credit card.\n\n[Sidharth](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidharth-choraria-25411b65/) is a finance & tech geek. He spearheaded the In-app purchase module for the Amazon Appstore, utilized by app developers to monetize digital content globally. He successfully scaled systems to manage 100 million daily requests during his time at Paytm and MakeMyTrip.", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Mji-infinity-simplifying-global-payments-for-indian-businesses", "votes": 20, "created_at": "2025-02-04T15:16:33.974Z" }, { "id": 78490, "title": "🚀 Infinity - Business banking for cross-border SMBs and startups", "tagline": "Infinity is a single platform to manage finances for cross-border business.", "body": "### TL;DR:\n\nInfinity simplifies banking for global businesses. It enables cross-border Indian companies to conduct transactions and receive payments in local currencies. Additionally, Infinity offers an in-house treasury management solution, allowing businesses to earn yield on idle cash and mitigate FX risks.\n\nHey everyone! We’re [Sourav](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sourav-choraria-9b389776/) and [Sidharth](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidharth-choraria-25411b65/) and we're building a business banking platform for cross-border SMBs and Startups. In our past jobs, we worked as founders, wealth managers, growth hackers, and founding engineers at high-growth fintech startups.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78490&key=user_uploads/1347097/151b89e9-ff7d-4da8-8fd1-758c5bc04cac)\n\n### \n\n### 🤔 Problem\n\nBusiness banking is difficult. More so if you are global. Cross-border payments pose several challenges due to the complexities involved in transferring funds across different countries and jurisdictions.\\\n\\\n**Global payments are expensive**\\\nOne of the more basic issues with FX transactions is the lack of transparency in terms of the cost to execute FX payments. These costs can include wire transfer fees, correspondent bank fees, currency conversion fees, and intermediary fees, among others. While existing market providers might stress that one factor is low (lower than that of a competitor), that same institution might have high fees in another area, offsetting those savings.\n\n_In general for every dollar a business moves from the US to India, business loses **7%.**_\n\n**Global payments are slow**\\\nIn the majority of instances, international bank transfers are facilitated via the SWIFT network. This network ensures the transmission of your payment to its intended recipient. Nevertheless, the path isn't always direct. Certain payments may be routed through intermediaries, often referred to as correspondent banks, akin to making multiple connecting flights before reaching your final destination.\n\n_Generally speaking, international bank transfers will arrive within **one to five working days**._\n\n**There’s a compliance risk** \\\nEach transaction must be promptly reported to the Central Bank of India, accompanied by the correct invoice and purpose codes (of which there are numerous variations), sign-off from chartered accountants, etc. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in payment delays extending for months.\n\n**And There’s a FX risk**\\\nThe conversion rates between USD and INR are variable.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78490&key=user_uploads/224267/144ca69a-c117-4837-b4ae-731cfed5fc15)\n\nWhat you receive today may differ from what you get in five days. If a business converts USD to INR five days from now and the dollar weakens, it will incur losses.\n\n### 🤩 The Solution\n\nIntroducing Infinity!\\\nStreamline global customers and suppliers’ payments with local accounts.\n\n**1) Multiple local currency accounts - one platform:** Easily send, hold, and receive funds in major currencies to facilitate transactions with overseas suppliers and customers.\\\n**2) Flat Fee - with zero FX markup:** Be fully transparent about the charges you incur. Receive a comprehensive breakdown of fees before each transaction to avoid any surprises.\\\n**3) Fast, same-day international money transfer:** Track your payment in real time.\\\n**4)** **Treasury service to hedge FX:** Earn higher yields on idle cash without worrying about liquidity and underlying asset risk.\\\n**5) Instant remittance certificate:** You move money. Infinity will take care of compliance.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=78490&key=user_uploads/224267/aa9f08af-a85a-4252-b889-f62c1e2a2d6a)\n\n\\\nOur long-term vision is to be the **_financial operating system_** for businesses by automating daily financial tasks, allowing them to focus on what matters most. \n\n### 😎 **Team**\n\nSourav and Sidharth are siblings. This is their second startup together. Back in 2016, they co-founded health tech startup ClinMD.\n\n[Sourav](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sourav-choraria-9b389776/) was Head of the growth and product team at Paytm Money (India's largest wealth management platform). He also successfully launched India's first FD-backed credit card. \n\n[Sidharth](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidharth-choraria-25411b65/) is a finance & tech geek. He spearheaded the In-app purchase module for the Amazon Appstore, utilized by app developers to monetize digital content globally. He successfully scaled systems to manage 100 million daily requests during his time at Paytm and MakeMyTrip.\n\n### **🙏 Our Ask**\n\nIf you want to try us out or to know how to manage your cash, please reach out to us. We’d love to give you a demo of how Infinity works, and even if not, we’d be happy to help you figure out your cash management situation.\n\nSay hi at [**sourav@infinityapp.in**](https://mailto:sourav@infinityapp.in/) or [**sid@infinityapp.in**](https://mailto:sid@infinityapp.in/) or Whatsapp at +91-9535482864 👋🏻\n\nAnd we’ll help you get started!\n\nYou can also [fill this form](https://dashboard.infinityapp.in/auth/signup) to request a demo.\n\n* Website —[**https://www.infinityapp.in**](https://www.infinityapp.in/)\n* LinkedIn — [**https://www.linkedin.com/company/infinityinvest**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/infinityinvest)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/KPy-infinity-business-banking-for-cross-border-smbs-and-startups", "votes": 164, "created_at": "2024-02-16T22:41:05.516Z" } ] }, { "id": 29833, "name": "Quetzal", "slug": "quetzal", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2e0833dd48a420927a12b9525cc6f2b83f83211.png", "website": "https://getquetzal.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Quetzal is the first fully LLM-powered translation and internationalization suite, enabling companies to translate and internationalize their software and content instantly with minimal setup. We also handle all of your internationalization issues, from managing all of your stakeholders to bringing your product and marketing to market. No more waiting days or even weeks for translated content! Deliver a perfect experience to your users in any language, instantly.", "one_liner": "Simple, LLM-first translation and internationalization for software", "team_size": 2, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design", "launched_at": 1721636551, "tags": [ "SaaS", "Enterprise Software", "International", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Engineering, Product and Design" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/quetzal", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2024/quetzal.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/e2e0833dd48a420927a12b9525cc6f2b83f83211.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Brad Flora", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/brad-flora" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1755404, "full_name": "John Thompson", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Former SWE at Slack, working to make software internationalization as easy and painless as possible", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/jthompson4004", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/bb21ed28a405ecb129ee836401762a08d152a51f.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1755481, "full_name": "Brendan Agliardo", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Founder of Quetzal, former SWE at Mercatalyst, UMD CS dropout", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "N/A", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/6ae3434594d775a0204b764e7210a15a7fef2212.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 82510, "title": "Quetzal 🦜 A modern internationalization platform", "tagline": "Say hello to Quetzal, your all-in-one solution for software internationalization", "body": "**_tl;dr_** - We’re the fastest and easiest way to solve all of your translation and internationalization issues in one platform.\n\nHello, Hola, Guten Tag, 你好, etc., to you all! We’re John and Brendan, the team creating [Quetzal](https://getquetzal.com/).\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=82510&key=user_uploads/1755404/113a9847-7718-45ff-9f1e-ac6df1d8d02f)\n\n**John** (on the left) worked for three years at Slack on the Slack Connect team, handling new features and requests from customers around the world. He saw firsthand the pain that bad and challenging translations and internationalization had for everyone at the company, from engineers, to CSMs, to PMs, to users.\n\n**Brendan** (on the right) worked for two years at Mercatalyst, a retail startup founded by the creator of Woot.com, which sold to Amazon in 2010. He worked extensively on the project bringing in in-house Spanish translation, and experienced the headache that this effort caused.\n\nTogether, they decided to bring outdated and broken internationalization software and approaches into the year 2024 with Quetzal.\n\n# **Why is the current approach to internationalization and translation broken? 🤕**\n\nIf you're just starting out going international with your product, it can be daunting to see exactly what you need to do. Translating your whole product takes time and perhaps maybe weeks or months of engineering effort, depending on what solution you go with. How do you deliver consistent and accurate translations with context about how your application works? Software translation mostly relies on engineers haphazardly providing text to an internationalization service, which then needs to translate on a string by string basis. This strategy loses important context and leads to poor quality, inconsistent translations, all while putting unnecessary work on engineers.\n\nIf your company already has a robust localization system, there's a whole host of other problems. You need to juggle the constant barrage of customer confusion, growth and change to your product and messaging, and external demands to adjust wording and phrasing, sometimes at the last second. Keeping up with all of that and making your language and messaging consistent with how your product works and what your intents are is super tough and puts unnecessary stress on your localization team.\n\nQuetzal aims to tackles these problems with a new modern internationalization solution that understands your specific goals with each localization problem you're trying to solve.\n\n# **Our ask to you, kind reader:**\n\n* If you’re trying to internationalize or have already done it but are experiencing pain in the process (or if you know someone that is!) please reach out to us at [john@getquetzal.com](mailto:john@getquetzal.com) or [brendan@getquetzal.com.](mailto:brendan@getquetzal.com)\n* Connect us with people on Internationalization and Localization teams within your network so we can see what their pain is.\n* **Share this post!** If you think what we’re doing is cool, share this post out to your network!\n* Or if you just want to practice a second language (we speak English, Spanish, Mandarin, and German between us), play chess, or just chat about internationalization, let us know!\n\n(Yes, we know that we used a parrot emoji in the title, please let us know when they add a real quetzal).\n\nThank you very much for reading,\n\nJohn Thompson & Brendan Agliardo", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LSo-quetzal-a-modern-internationalization-platform", "votes": 26, "created_at": "2024-07-29T02:06:55.041Z" } ] }, { "id": 30060, "name": "Lingo.dev", "slug": "lingodotdev", "former_names": [ "Replexica" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8a284047c475d06365013890a991877b3bdad21e.png", "website": "https://lingo.dev", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA; Remote", "long_description": "Lingo.dev is the localization engineering platform: the best way to translate with LLMs, measure translation quality, and proofread with native speakers.\r\n\r\nLingo.dev is built for teams accountable for quality in languages they can't read. Teams configure localization engines, stateful translation APIs that hold the glossary, brand voice, and per-locale model preferences, and every request retrieves that context at inference time through retrieval augmented localization. Every translation is scored before it goes live, scores and corrections tune the engine, and the localization team runs the localization infrastructure. Integrate through the API, CLI, CI/CD, or native integrations with the code repository and the CMS. \r\n\r\nLingo.dev is the standard localization infrastructure for modern enterprise teams scaling into new markets – including Mistral, Solana, SoSafe, and Cal.com. Over 300M words processed, SOC 2 Type II compliant.", "one_liner": "The Localization Engineering Platform", "team_size": 7, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Engineering, Product and Design", "launched_at": 1728389519, "tags": [ "B2B", "International", "Infrastructure", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Fall 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Engineering, Product and Design" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Fully Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": [ { "question": "How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)", "answer": "Veronica and Max met eight years ago at work and have been building together since. Veronica came from data science, then AI. Max came from engineering, having led a DORA-elite frontend team at Typeform.\r\n\r\nBetween them they had shipped software at startups and enterprises and bootstrapped a SaaS with customers in over 100 countries. Localization broke the same way every time: the people accountable for the result could not read most of the languages they were accountable for. They approved work they could not check, and they found out it was wrong from a customer.\r\n\r\nEvery product on the market treated that as a workflow problem, so it sold coordination. It is a measurement problem. Lingo.dev was built around the instrument first, and the pipeline around the instrument." }, { "question": "How did you decide to apply to Y Combinator? What was your experience applying, going through the batch, and fundraising at demo day?", "answer": "Our first serious customers arrived, Cal.com among them, and the question stopped being whether this works and became how far it goes. Localization is a global problem by definition. Every company that grows past one language has it, in every market it enters, permanently. A problem that shape deserves a lasting, durable company behind it rather than a good couple of years.\r\n\r\nSo we shot for the stars and applied to the best accelerators in the world. We ended up in conversations with several, and we chose Y Combinator.\r\n\r\nNo other program has a record like it. Stripe, Airbnb, DoorDash, and Coinbase all started there, and each one became the default infrastructure of an entire category, operating in nearly every market on earth. YC backs companies at the point where the idea still looks small and the market does not exist yet, and it does that more often, and more correctly, than anyone else. That is the standard it sets, and that is the company we wanted to keep.\r\n\r\nThe batch did what it is known for: sharper questions, faster iteration, and a peer group that tells you the truth early rather than politely later. We raised $4.2M from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, and the founders of Supabase and Dependabot to scale the platform and meet the growing demand from international teams." }, { "question": "How have you kept in touch with the YC community and continued to use YC resources & programs since the batch ended?", "answer": "We attend YC events and stay close to the private network between them.\r\n\r\nWe try to be genuinely useful. Founders ask about localization, going multilingual, and expanding internationally, and we take those conversations whenever there is a chance to help. The network works because founders treat it as something to contribute to, so that is how we use it." }, { "question": "What's the history of your company from getting started until the present day? What were the big inflection points?", "answer": "Founded in December 2023, after winning an AI product competition at Cornell Tech in New York. Full-time from February 2024.\r\n\r\nThe first product translated software with AI on every commit. It worked, and it showed how small that problem is. The commit loop is roughly one percent of localization work, and it was already close to solved.\r\n\r\nThe inflection was the buyer. Localization managers and localization engineers carry accountability for quality in languages they cannot read, and the market treats that seat as an afterthought. The company was rebuilt around that seat, and the tool became a platform: localization engines, quality scoring, native integrations, and proofreading with native speakers.\r\n\r\nToday over 300M words have been processed on the platform, for teams including Mistral, Solana, SoSafe, and Cal.com. Lingo.dev is SOC 2 Type II compliant and has raised $4.2M from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, and the founders of Supabase and Dependabot to scale the platform and meet the growing demand from international teams." }, { "question": "What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?", "answer": "A company releases into thirty languages. The person accountable for those languages reads two.\r\n\r\nTranslation stopped being the constraint, it comes back in seconds, from an agency or straight from a model, and it gets cheaper every quarter. What nobody hands the accountable team is the number: which languages are good, which drifted, and what to fix first. Without it the team either trusts output it cannot read, or pays a person to read every string.\r\n\r\nLingo.dev is where that number comes from. Teams pick from the industry-standard metrics or define quality criteria in plain words, and every translation is scored before it goes live. Every low score carries its reason, traced to the model, the translation rule, or the missing glossary term. Corrections from native speakers tune the localization engine, so the edit rate falls over time.\r\n\r\nIt is a big problem because the accountability does not move. Software goes out in more languages every year, the people who answer for those languages still cannot read them, and the volume of text nobody has checked grows with every release." }, { "question": "What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?", "answer": "Translation quality becomes a measured quantity.\r\n\r\nToday it is an opinion. Vendors assert it, buyers cannot check it, and nearly every quality number published in this industry arrives without a method behind it. When Lingo.dev succeeds, a team states what its Japanese was worth this quarter, what changed since last quarter, and what caused the change, the same way it states its uptime.\r\n\r\nDownstream of that, a product goes live in every language it has customers in on the day it goes live in English, and the team that owns those languages proves the result instead of defending it." } ], "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/lingodotdev", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/fall-2024/lingodotdev.json", "year_founded": 2024, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/lingodotdev/", "x_url": "https://x.com/lingodotdev", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": "https://github.com/lingodotdev", "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/8a284047c475d06365013890a991877b3bdad21e.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [ "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/333cb48eb636ff7b5d665261d9c36759c9766fa3.png" ], "primary_partner": { "name": "Pete Koomen", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/pete-koomen" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1992394, "full_name": "Max Prilutskiy", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Max is a co-founder and CEO of Lingo.dev.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxprilutskiy", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/maxprilutskiy", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/b2bf4dde1a3ffd83d232fe5a388e7b3ff6283e46.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1989733, "full_name": "Veronica Prilutskaya", "title": "Founder/CPO", "founder_bio": "CPO and co-founder of Lingo.dev.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/vrcprl/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/vrcprl", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/cdaba224c6470b15da00112c10285c1520724cd1.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Lingo.dev is an app localization engine for developers | TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers/", "date": "Feb 18, 2025" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 84681, "title": "Lingo.dev – The Localization Engineering Platform", "tagline": "Lingo.dev is the localization engineering platform: the best way to measure translation quality, translate with LLMs, and proofread with native speakers.", "body": "![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=84681&key=user_uploads/1992394/c62aca07-353c-49ad-a49e-b403d1b784e0)\n\n**TL;DR**\n\n[Lingo.dev](https://lingo.dev) is the localization engineering platform: the best way to translate with LLMs, measure translation quality, and proofread with native speakers.\n\nIt's built for teams accountable for quality in languages they can't read: a localization team, or the product, engineering, or marketing team that inherited localization without one. Every translation is scored before it goes live, and scores and corrections tune the localization engine.\n\n**Speed stopped being the problem**\n\nA release goes out in thirty languages, and the person accountable for it reads two.\n\nTranslation comes back fast now, from an agency or straight from a model, and it gets cheaper every quarter. The number nobody hands you is the quality one: which languages are good, which drifted, and what to fix first. Without it you are accountable for quality you can neither read nor repair.\n\n**What Lingo.dev does**\n\n* **Build your own localization engine.** A localization engine is a stateful translation API that holds your glossary, brand voice, and per-locale model preferences. Retrieval augmented localization sends that context to the LLM at inference time. Assign the highest-scoring model per language pair, with a fallback order, on your own LLM provider API key or through Lingo.dev without markup.\n* **Measure translation quality in languages you can't read.** Pick from the industry-standard metrics, define your own quality criteria in plain words, bring the quality scorecard you have, or start from a template built for your content type. The criteria you define score translations from LLMs and from native speakers, and every low score comes with the reason, traced to the model, the translation rule, or the missing glossary term.\n* **Integrate localization into the tools you already use.** Connect the code repository, the CMS, the help center, and the email provider through native integrations, and reach the same localization engine from the API, the CLI, and CI/CD. The localization team runs the localization infrastructure.\n* **Proofread with native speakers.** Decide what waits for a person, by content type, by locale, or by a score threshold you set. Every correction tunes the localization engine, so the native speakers' edit rate falls over time.\n\n**Who runs on it**\n\nLingo.dev is the standard localization infrastructure for modern enterprise teams scaling into new markets, including Mistral, Solana, SoSafe, and Cal.com. Teams have processed over 300M words on the platform, for their customers all over the world. Lingo.dev is SOC 2 Type II compliant, and has raised $4.2M from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, and the founders of Supabase and Dependabot to scale the platform and meet the growing demand from international teams.\n\n**Ask**\n\nIf you release into languages nobody on your team reads, we will score what goes live today, per language, on your own content.\n\nSet up Lingo.dev: \n\nBook a demo: \n\nAnd send this to the localization professional you know. Scoring quality in languages nobody on the team reads is their job, and this is where that work happens.\n\n**Team**\n\n[Veronica](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vrcprl/) and [Max](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxprilutskiy/), [Lingo.dev](https://lingo.dev)'s founders, met eight years ago at work. Veronica has a data science and AI background. Max has an engineering background, having led a DORA-elite frontend team at Typeform, one of Europe's best-known SaaS products.\n\nBoth experienced localization problems firsthand while working at startups and enterprise companies and while bootstrapping a SaaS with customers from over 100 countries. This shared experience led them to create Lingo.dev, so the professionals accountable for translation quality can measure it in every language, including the ones nobody on the team reads.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=84681&key=user_uploads/1989733/dfd03586-1d6f-4747-b6fc-e0d84f5022a5)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/M1p-lingo-dev-the-localization-engineering-platform", "votes": 60, "created_at": "2024-10-10T18:18:35.695Z" } ] } ]