🔥 Claremont + Y Combinator = Success

A look into the historical success that Claremont-founded startups have had going through Y Combinator

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Y Combinator has arguably been the most successful startup accelerator since it launched in March of 2005. Two decades since launching and YC has become a household name for founders and investors alike, and acceptance into the program has been an impressive achievement for founders that has provided a high signal for investors. Along with popularizing the startup accelerator model, YC’s investing and programming have been the industry’s gold standard. Not to mention, YC also invented and commercialized the use of SAFEs, which is now commonly used throughout early-stage investing as the first money in.

Since starting, Y Combinator has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including top-decile, generational companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, DoorDash, Reddit, and Cruise — which Claremont alumnus Dan Kan founded. Unsurprisingly, Cruise is not the only Claremont-founded startup in which YC has noticed and invested. Over the past twenty years, YC has been one of the most prevalent investors in Claremont-founded startups, investing in and helping accelerate 40 different Claremont-founded startups to date.

These 40 companies have collectively raised over $16B in funding, and ten of them have already exited for over $4.3B in combined exit dollars — nine acquisitions and one IPO. Even more impressive is that these ten companies, on average, had their exits within under four years after incorporation.

Y Combinator, however, was not the only investor who took notice of these Claremont companies. 80% of the 36 companies also raised from top institutional investors other than YC. Felicis Ventures, Initialized Capital, Founders Fund, Greylock, First Round Capital, SV Angels, and Gaingels were some of the main co-investors in these companies, and they all invested in at least two or more of these Claremont/YC companies.

More exits and impressive outcomes are also on the horizon, as 38 of the 40 companies were founded and went through YC in just the last decade.

On average, 3+ Claremont-founded startups a year are getting accepted into YC and going through their programming. Furthermore, each vintage year from 20011–2016 for Claremont/YC companies averaged 1.3 exits.

Twenty-six of the forty Claremont startups that have graduated from YC remain private with a combined estimated private valuation of over $760M. Six of these private companies also currently hold private valuations of over $50M each.

Below are just a few of the most successful Claremont-founded startups that have gone through Y Combinator:

• Matterport — a 3D media platform developer used to establish 3D and virtual reality models co-founded by Claremont alumnus Michael Beebe. In 2021, Matterport IPO’d with a valuation of ~$2.9B.
• Cruise — an autonomous vehicle company co-founded by Claremont alumnus Dan Kan. In 2016, Cruise was acquired by GM for ~$1.2B.
• Medumo — a healthcare startup helping healthcare organizations deliver patient information using automated SMS and email co-founded by Claremont alumnus Jacob Cohen. The business was acquired by Phillips Healthcare in 2019.
• TapEngage — a startup that enables advertisers and publishers to collaborate on tablet-optimized advertising co-founded by Claremont alumnus Matt Holden. The business was acquired by Dropbox in 2013.
• Kinside — a child care marketplace powered by employers co-founded by former unicorn entrepreneur and Claremont alumnus Shadiah Sigala. Earlier this year, Kinside raised a $12M Series A led by Wellington Management.
• Tydo — an analytics platform for eCommerce brands co-founded by Claremont grads Manav Kohli and Scott Sonneborn. Last year Tydo raised a Series A from Greylock Partners and Rogue Capital.
• Living Carbon — a climate change biotech company genetically enhancing CO2 capture and storage in trees co-founded by Claremont alumnus Maddie Hall. Living Carbon has raised over $40M from Felicis Ventures and Telemark Ventures.
• 54Gene — a healthcare startup that offers a genetics testing platform co-founded by Claremont alumnus Abasi Ene-Obong. The company has raised over $90M in funding, including a $25M Series B last year led by Cathay Innovation.
• Coursedog — an edtech company providing curriculum and schedule planning solutions for Higher Education co-founded by Claremont transfer Nicholas Diao. Last year Coursedog raised a $17M Series A led by Coatue and First Round Capital.

Just for fun, we also did some analysis on the ROI for these companies, and if you blindly invested a check into every one of these Claremont/YC startups, you wouldn’t have been disappointed.

Assuming you wrote an early check into all 40 companies on an average of a $7.5M Post-Money Valuation and had a ~60% dilution in your ownership by the time of exit, you would’ve had a ~6x return on investment according to known distributions from these exits. This is also on the conservative side, as a few of the exits went for unknown amounts. Furthermore, you would also currently be sitting with a ~1.5 MOIC in portfolio value for the companies that are still private.

The verdict is out, and it’s SAFE to say that Claremont + YC = Success.

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