The 11 standout startups from YC’s Demo Day, according to VCs

With each new season comes another YC Demo Day. On Tuesday, the Spring 2026 cohort was unveiled, filled with defense tech, robotics, AI infrastructure and developer tools, and of course, AI agents themselves. TechCrunch spoke to eight investors to determine which ones were the hottest companies in this batch — both the ones they were watching and the startups they heard other VCs couldn’t get enough of. This list consists primarily of companies that had been flagged by at least two investors as the buzziest in the batch. That excitement translated into larger rounds and massive price tags for some of these companies. Just when we thought YC valuations couldn’t get any higher, they surpassed all expectations. This batch had at least two startups fetching valuations of $175 million or more. Investors were also clearly willing to pay a premium for proven, repeat founders. We’ve organized the standouts alphabetically below: 9 Mothers What it’s building: AI-powered counter-drone systems Why it’s a fav: The Russia-Ukraine conflict is showing just how lethal small drones are, with the systems now accounting for roughly 80% of casualties. Existing counter-drone solutions are expensive and often useless at jamming swarms of drones flying at low altitudes. 9 Mothers claims that it developed a more “affordable” robot that can track and kill drones traveling at 60 miles per hour. …