Top accelerator startups

Startups14,448Programs29

14,448 startups · 29 programs

Captain

Active · Self-tuning search for products and files

WebsiteYC profile

Why it ranks

How the rank works
7signal of 100 · rising 7
  • went through YCProgram · this site+4
  • team of 2Team size · YC's directory+2.5

A sum of public facts, not a judgement and not investment advice.

Competitors

AIAcquiredTrieveShared: search, api, tuningYC W24San FranciscoStartup →AIWondersearchShared: vector database, infrastructure, fileYC F26San FranciscoStartup →AIHelixDBShared: vector database, infrastructure, agentYC X25LondonStartup →AIShapedShared: search, retrieval, agentYC W22New York CityStartup →AILanceDBShared: vector database, data engineering, searchYC W22San FranciscoStartup →
Companies closest to Captain
Company
TrieveShared: search, api, tuningYC W24AcquiredAI, Data, Devtools
WondersearchShared: vector database, infrastructure, fileYC F26ActiveAI, Devtools
HelixDBShared: vector database, infrastructure, agentYC X25ActiveAI, Data, Devtools
ShapedShared: search, retrieval, agentYC W22ActiveAI, Data, Devtools
LanceDBShared: vector database, data engineering, searchYC W22ActiveAI, Data, Devtools

Adjacent

AIArtemis SearchShared: vector database, search, insteadYC S22San FranciscoStartup →AIInactiveLanternShared: vector database, search, embeddingYC W24San FranciscoStartup →AIReflexShared: stitching together, infrastructureYC W23San FranciscoStartup →AITerseShared: api, infrastructure, powerYC F26New York CityStartup →AIAcquiredOnyxShared: google drive, search, syncYC W24San FranciscoStartup →
Companies next to Captain
Company
Artemis SearchShared: vector database, search, insteadYC S22ActiveAI, Data
LanternShared: vector database, search, embeddingYC W24InactiveAI, Data, Devtools
ReflexShared: stitching together, infrastructureYC W23ActiveAI, Devtools
TerseShared: api, infrastructure, powerYC F26ActiveAI, Devtools
OnyxShared: google drive, search, syncYC W24AcquiredAI, Data, Devtools

Also from W26 in AI

All of W26
AISalusGuardrails to validate your agent's actions before they executeYC W26San FranciscoStartup →AIAshrEnterprise post-training, monitoring, and continual learning platformYC W26San FranciscoStartup →AIBidflowAI Takeoffs for ElectricalYC W26New York CityStartup →AICorveraThe AI sales agent for CPG brandsYC W26San FranciscoStartup →AIOvershootWe optimize inference stacks for teamsYC W26San FranciscoStartup →AIPiris LabsThe Networking Layer of AIYC W26San FranciscoStartup →
Company
SalusGuardrails to validate your agent's actions before they executeteam of 2hiringActiveAI, Devtools
AshrEnterprise post-training, monitoring, and continual learning platformteam of 2ActiveAI, Data
BidflowAI Takeoffs for Electricalteam of 2ActiveAI, Devtools
CorveraThe AI sales agent for CPG brandsteam of 4hiringActiveAI, Data
OvershootWe optimize inference stacks for teamsteam of 5ActiveAI, Devtools
Piris LabsThe Networking Layer of AIteam of 8hiringActiveAI, Devtools

Founders

  • Lewis Lien PolanskyFounder/CEO
  • Edgar BabajanyanFounder/CTO

About Captain

Captain makes product catalogs and complex, multimodal files searchable for customers and AI agents. It syncs files from sources like S3, SharePoint, and Google Drive and tunes search to your data and workloads. Instead of stitching together parsers, embeddings, vector databases, rerankers, and retrieval infrastructure, developers use Captain to power product search and file retrieval through managed APIs. On evaluated file-search benchmarks, Captain’s tuning improved retrieval accuracy from roughly 78% with standard RAG to over 97%. Built for complex catalogs and demanding file-search workloads, including regulated and high-stakes applications.

YC batch
W26 · Winter 2026
Status, per YC
Active
Category
AI, Data, Developer tools
Team size
2
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded
2025
Checked
6h ago

YC tags: B2B, API, Data Engineering, Search, Infrastructure

Changes seen

One-linerOct 8, 2026

Rewrote its one-liner; it read "Self-tuning file search for AI agents"

Source ↗
TagsOct 8, 2026

Newly tagged Search.

Source ↗

Captain in W26: 199 companies, 81% AI

LinkedIn

Captain: questions

Which YC batch was Captain in?

Captain was in Y Combinator's Winter 2026 batch (W26).

Is Captain still active?

Y Combinator lists Captain as active.

Who founded Captain?

Captain's founders, as listed on its YC page: Lewis Lien Polansky (Founder/CEO), Edgar Babajanyan (Founder/CTO).

Where is Captain based?

Captain lists San Francisco, CA, USA as its location on YC's directory.