Insight · Y Combinator
YC went global, then came home
For most of its first decade, Y Combinator was an American program: non-US companies made up under 6% of the 2012 intake. The international share then climbed for a decade and peaked at 40% in the 2022 batches — before collapsing back to single digits by 2025. The round trip is visible in one aggregation over the public directory's country field.
US vs international share of each batch year (%)
US share %International share %
All numbers
| Batch year | Companies | US | International | Intl % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 33 | 31 | 2 | 6.1% |
| 2009 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 0% |
| 2010 | 60 | 58 | 2 | 3.3% |
| 2011 | 103 | 100 | 3 | 2.9% |
| 2012 | 136 | 128 | 8 | 5.9% |
| 2013 | 95 | 88 | 7 | 7.4% |
| 2014 | 146 | 127 | 19 | 13% |
| 2015 | 212 | 178 | 34 | 16% |
| 2016 | 218 | 186 | 32 | 14.7% |
| 2017 | 232 | 170 | 62 | 26.7% |
| 2018 | 269 | 207 | 62 | 23% |
| 2019 | 360 | 262 | 98 | 27.2% |
| 2020 | 431 | 294 | 137 | 31.8% |
| 2021 | 708 | 393 | 315 | 44.5% |
| 2022 | 616 | 370 | 246 | 39.9% |
| 2023 | 449 | 363 | 86 | 19.2% |
| 2024 | 550 | 495 | 55 | 10% |
| 2025 | 573 | 524 | 49 | 8.6% |
| 2026 | 359 | 343 | 16 | 4.5% |
Top non-US countries, all time
United Kingdom GB209
India IN201
Canada CA133
Mexico MX80
France FR53
Singapore SG50
Nigeria NG50
Germany DE47
Brazil BR46
Indonesia ID30
Methodology & caveats
- · One query:
POST /v1/yc/companies/searchwith{"group_by":["batch_year","country"]}. - · Country is the company's listed HQ country in the YC directory — not founder nationality; companies that relocate to the US after acceptance typically list US.
- · Companies without a listed country are excluded from shares. 2005–2007 batches excluded (small n); future announced batches excluded.
- · Data as of 2026-06-11.
Slice by region, tag, or status via the YC directory API. Related: industry drift · batch survival.