The American accelerator Y Combinator is ready to accept Ukrainian defence startups – even remotely

Ukrainian defence tech startups now have a chance to participate in the Y Combinator accelerator programme under special terms. The accelerator’s partner Jared Friedman stated that the project team is ready to make an exception for Ukrainians, since not all founders have the opportunity to leave the country.

Recently, Y Combinator announced its winter programme (January – March) in San Francisco. Ukrainian entrepreneur Oleg Kotsour, who is now working on a project in the US, emphasised in his post on X that Y Combinator’s rules exclude founders from countries at war.

Jared Friedman responded to the post, stating that Y Combinator is prepared to consider exceptional conditions for Ukrainians.

Thus, Ukrainian founders in the defence-tech sector can apply to Y Combinator’s programme. The application deadline is 10 November. You can apply here.

The accelerator team encourages startups to apply as early as possible. If Y Combinator’s admissions committee approves an application, founders will be invited to an interview via videoconference in November or December, with decisions given on the same day.

Y Combinator also stresses that startups receive investment from the accelerator before the programme begins. Participation includes not only the educational component but a $500,000 investment, split into two tranches. However, the startup must establish a legal entity in the U.S. state of Delaware. At the end of the programme, the accelerator team helps startups attract additional investment by connecting them to a large network of investors.

Before 2024, Y Combinator did not accept applications from defence tech projects. The rules were recently changed and the accelerator now has a number of defence tech startups in its portfolio. Oleg Kotsour discussed this in a separate thread.

Y Combinator is a leading global accelerator. The project has invested in over 5,000 startups. Alumni include Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase, Dropbox, Twitch, Reddit, Stripe, and others with billion-dollar valuations. The total valuation of companies in the accelerator’s portfolio exceeds $800 billion.

Ukrainian-founded companies have also participated in Y Combinator programmes, including Awesomic, AiSDR, YouTeam, Datrics, and Petcube — the latter founded by Yarosl­av Azhnyuk, who now develops defence tech startups The Fourth Law and Odd Systems.