On Wednesday’s Y Combinator’s Spring 2025 demo day, almost all startups had something to do with AI. They are developing AI agents or creating tools to facilitate development.
In fact, it appears that some founders are pulling pages from playbooks of some successful AI startups. Approximately half a dozen startups have announced variations of “Cursor of X.” For example, Den is constructing a “Knowledge Worker Cursor” and Vesence is moving forward to create a “Kursor for Lawyers.”
However, it wasn’t just AI. I’ve noticed that some startups are working on robotics.
Below are some of the startups that caught both investors and our attention.
Anvil
What it does: LLMS SEO
Why it’s your favorite: The way people search for content is changing because they find content using a variety of AI tools, such as CHATGPT, GEMINI, and confusion. Naturally, brands need to find ways to increase visibility on these platforms. Anvil claims that it helps brands measure, optimize and increase their presence with these AI tools.
atum is a work
What it does: build a 3D chip
Why it’s a favorite: Since transistors aren’t as small as they used to be, the founders of Atum suggest the best new way to put more transistors on the chip, and therefore increasing the processing power is stacking them in three dimensions. Investors told me that Atum’s vision is so innovative that the company has the opportunity to become the next Nvidia.
Octor
What it does: automate the implementation of enterprise software
Why it’s your favorite: Startups say that prominent software vendors like SAP, ServiceNow, AWS, Box are potentially reaching out to use the Auctor solution itself to integrate software into customer sites.
Cactus
What it does: AI co-pilot for solopreneurs
Why is it your favorite: Cactus says that people who run their own businesses are often too busy pursuing new opportunities. The startup claims that AI bots can remove some load by answering calls and accepting payments on your behalf.
Den
What it does: Enterprise Knowledge Worker Cursor
Why is it my favorite: Investors told me this is one of the hottest companies in batch. Den promises that AI agents can replace Slack and the concept, allowing corporate employees to interact and share software and information tailored to each company’s specific needs.
Eloquent AI
What does it do: Automate customer operations with AI
Why it was my favorite: Eloquent says that the AI bot will help financial services companies customers automatically unlock their bank accounts and add drivers to their car insurance. In other words, eloquence promises to end the long wait for human customer service. Startups claim that financial companies can quickly deploy AI without the need to involve their internal engineering teams. Startup co-founder and CEO Tugce Bullut said on the TBPN podcast that Eloquent is already procuring “a massive seed round.”
LLM Data Company
What it does: Tools for assessment and reinforcement learning
Why it’s your favorite: Evaluating all new AI tools for quality becomes a snowball and challenging problem. LLM Data Company says it can help its own LLM, which can assess the quality of its AI agents, and is working with customers including confusion.
Scalar Field
What it does: AI-powered Bloomberg Terminal
“Terminals are dashboards and we don’t think about tools,” says Amandeep Singh, co-founder of Scalar Field. Startup AI agents don’t “think” for you, but they claim they can manipulate financial data with greater flexibility than existing financial tools.
Sim Studios
What it does: Open Source AI Agent Builder
Why is it your favorite: Sim Studios wants to do what Figma has done for its design for AI agents. Customers, SIM Studios users, including EPIQ, Merccore, and the US Department of Defense, have built AI agents for key features such as data conversion, real-world event simulation, and deep search.
sygaldry
What it does: Quantum accelerates AI servers to speed up AI training and inference
Why is it your favorite: Fully functional quantum computers may still be apart for years, but the industry is on the rise. Turning to Sygaldry is Chad Rigetti, co-founder and CEO who founded and published the company in 2021 via SPAC.
Vibe
What it does: Vibe coding to build applications
Why is it my favorite: Investors who saw the Vybe Building app demo said they could create all sorts of cool tools. One of the people I spoke to called it the “clear winner” of the batch.
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