Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator held its second demo day for its summer 2024 cohort on Thursday. As we saw in Day 1, AI continues to be the focus for most startups in this cohort.
However, we also found some interesting startups working on cool technologies like traffic-free drones, cargo pooling, and weather forecasting.
The companies that stood out are:
Features: Detect errors in engineering projects, suggest solutions, and even implement them yourself.
Why I love it: I was intrigued when Entangl announced that it was in talks with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy about automating data center validation. The fact that the startup already has deals with AWS and Vodafone is a big plus.
Feature: Energy-efficient chips for AI
Why it's popular: One of the problems with AI is that it consumes a lot of energy. Initial testing of Exa's chip shows it to be nearly 28 times more efficient than NVIDIA's H100. Even better, these chips can be adapted to different models and only need to be configured in software. Exa hopes to have them available by early 2025.
Content: Development of autoimmune therapy to kill cancer
Why we like it: Keytruda and other autoimmune drugs have been a game-changer for many cancer patients, but we still have a long way to go. Copra Bio is working on a drug that could change that. In early animal studies, most animals were alive after 250 days, but animals given the FDA-approved drug died after just 50 days. If this drug worked in the same way in humans, it could be a major breakthrough for survival.
Content: AI bookkeeper for startups
Why we love it: LedgerUp's AI promises to make bookkeeping easier for businesses. You can also categorize your transactions, find discounts and credits you missed, manage your bills, manage your taxes, and more. I hope that bookkeeping becomes a job that no one misses.
Features: Provides a suite of productivity apps for growing organizations
Why it's popular: OrgOrg founder Wayne Crosby says his company helps companies streamline their app usage. While many companies may be gearing up to consolidate their app vendors, what caught my eye about OrgOrg is Crosby's background. Crosby, a three-time founder, founded his first company in 2007 through YC, which he later sold to Google, which became Google. slide. This experience is sure to interest investors.
Contents: Carpooling
Why I love it: I'm a big fan of Uber Pool, so I was excited to learn about Oway. The startup allows small businesses to share truck space and save on shipping costs. In other words, cargo ride sharing. It's faster and cheaper. What’s not to like about this?
Function: Basic model for predicting the weather
Why it's popular: Silurian's founder previously helped build Microsoft Research's Aurora, one of the world's most accurate weather forecasting models. But four months ago, they decided to leave the tech giant and build their own weather prediction engine. They claim this is an even better predictive tool than Aurora. The company is building a foundational model to simulate the entire Earth, targeting weather first.
Contents: Develop a drone that is not susceptible to interference.
Why they're popular: Drones have completely changed the landscape of warfare. It can also scout the enemy in real time and attack targets with pinpoint accuracy, all while reducing the need to put the pilot at risk. But there's a catch. There are many ways to sabotage a drone, rendering it useless. This became a major problem during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Theseus claims that the drones can avoid jamming, even if the target is Russia.
Features: Reduce congestion and accidents with smart traffic lights.
Why it's popular: AI-powered traffic light control seems like the perfect application for this technology. Xtraffic says it's already in place in several cities in Texas. I hope they arrive in my town in California. Because waiting for the light to turn green when there are no other cars around is certainly tiring.