Companies with a Polish founder rarely look Polish on paper. YC files each startup under its US address, so its own directory shows almost no Poles. Count by founders instead and Poland has 34 YC companies, with 2026 the record year at 8. Beyond YC, Polish-born co-founders stand behind OpenAI, Snowflake, ICEYE and ElevenLabs, and people with Polish family roots helped build Apple and ran YouTube
Y Combinator
Every YC company with at least one Polish founder, batches S12 to F26
34
YC companies with at least one Polish founder
8
in the 2026 batches, the most of any year
24
still active · 5 acquired · 5 closed
$224M
raised in total, $187M of it reported, the rest estimated
$1.1B
combined valuation and exit value, mostly estimates
$81M
estimated yearly revenue of active companies, $28M of it reported
Companies by batch year
Three in 2012, nothing in 2014-2016, then a steady climb to eight in 2026
ActiveAcquiredClosed
Batch codes: W winter, S summer, F fall, X and P spring. Status as of 09.10.2026
Where they sit
Best-guess HQ and offices of the YC companies. Tap a dot to list the companies there
North America31 office pins · 4 metros
Europe15 office pins · 6 metros
Locations as named in the article. Companies with two or three bases are pinned in each, so 34 companies make 46 pins
The 34 YC companies
Portraits show the Polish co-founders
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Status
Office
Showing 34 of 34
Plain figures are reported. est marks an estimate. Revenue is yearly, in USD
Beyond YC
Polish-born founders of companies built outside YC, plus people with Polish family roots who founded or ran major US tech companies
$1.02T
combined value of the 10 companies with a Polish-born founder, OpenAI's $852B included
$80.6B
their yearly revenue, $70.0B of it OpenAI's run-rate
$4.91T
Apple's market cap. Co-founder Steve Wozniak has Polish ancestry
The 14 companies
Values in USD, early October 2026. Most of these founders are one of several co-founders
Link
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Link to Poland: Polish-bornPolish-born parentPolish ancestryNot confirmed · est marks an estimate
Someone missing?
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