Top accelerator startups

Startups14,448Programs29

14,448 startups · 29 programs

Litmus

Active · Evals for humans

WebsiteYC profile

Why it ranks

How the rank works
8signal of 100 · rising 8
  • went through YCProgram · this site+4
  • team of 4Team size · YC's directory+3.6

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

Competitors

AIidlerShared: hill climb, eval, benchmarkYC S25San FranciscoStartup →AIEnactShared: hill climb, benchmark, environmentYC S26San FranciscoStartup →
Companies closest to Litmus
Company
idlerShared: hill climb, eval, benchmarkYC S25ActiveAI, Devtools
EnactShared: hill climb, benchmark, environmentYC S26ActiveAI

Adjacent

AIVoicepanelShared: evalYC W24Startup →AIPeoplebox.aiShared: recruiting, humanYC S22BengaluruStartup →AIRobocurveShared: eval, benchmarking, thereYC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIOlam LabsShared: data engineering, human, capabilityYC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIDeepAware AI (Robotics Center of Silicon Valley)Shared: data engineering, eval, environmentYC S25San FranciscoStartup →
Companies next to Litmus
Company
VoicepanelShared: evalYC W24ActiveAI, Data
Peoplebox.aiShared: recruiting, humanYC S22ActiveAI
RobocurveShared: eval, benchmarking, thereYC S26ActiveAI, Devtools
Olam LabsShared: data engineering, human, capabilityYC S26ActiveAI, Data
DeepAware AI (Robotics Center of Silicon Valley)Shared: data engineering, eval, environmentYC S25ActiveAI, Data

Also from S26 in AI

All of S26
AICueBenchRL post-training for science reasoning and performance engineeringYC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIHebbian RoboticsFoundational infrastructure for Physical AIYC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIMagmaMonetize your agent's traces.YC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIMarkovThe data lab for engineering and computer-use AI.YC S26San FranciscoStartup →AIOsseusData research lab for aligned health and biological AIYC S26LondonStartup →AIPetrarchAdvancing model capabilities for critical infrastructureYC S26San FranciscoStartup →
Company
CueBenchRL post-training for science reasoning and performance engineeringteam of 3ActiveAI, Data
Hebbian RoboticsFoundational infrastructure for Physical AIteam of 2ActiveAI, Data
MagmaMonetize your agent's traces.ActiveAI, Data, Devtools
MarkovThe data lab for engineering and computer-use AI.team of 2ActiveAI, Data, Devtools
OsseusData research lab for aligned health and biological AIteam of 2ActiveAI, Data
PetrarchAdvancing model capabilities for critical infrastructureteam of 3ActiveAI, Data

Founders

  • Shaivi RauFounder/CEO
  • Elena ZhaoFounder/CTO

About Litmus

Litmus is building the most accurate framework for evaluating and benchmarking human capability, starting with software. AI will compound small differences in human capability into increasingly large differences in what people can accomplish, while making existing static benchmarks obsolete. Software is already there: AI can hill-climb any output-based evaluation, while the ability to direct it is becoming the defining advantage. Litmus applies the same approach we already use for model evals to humans – creating world-like environments, and inspecting trajectory instead of just output. Every knowledge industry will soon face the same problem. We build Litmus to tell you what humans are capable of. We're already helping build frontier technical teams at Mercor, Composio, Neo Scholars, and more.

YC batch
S26 · Summer 2026
Status, per YC
Active
Category
AI, Data
Team size
4
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded
2025
Checked
6h ago

YC tags: Recruiting, Data Engineering, AI

Changes seen

Team sizeOct 29, 2026

Team went from 3 to 4 people.

Source ↗
HeadquartersOct 5, 2026

Moved its headquarters from New York City, NY, USA to San Francisco, CA, USA.

Source ↗

Litmus in S26: 229 companies, 88% AI

LinkedIn

Litmus: questions

Which YC batch was Litmus in?

Litmus was in Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch (S26).

Is Litmus still active?

Y Combinator lists Litmus as active.

Who founded Litmus?

Litmus's founders, as listed on its YC page: Shaivi Rau (Founder/CEO), Elena Zhao (Founder/CTO).

Where is Litmus based?

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