Meet all the Y Combinator Alumni from Central & Eastern Europe
Y Combinator is a network. Accelerator partners rely heavily on recommendations from former YC alumni. If you have none, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.
When our portfolio companies apply to YC (we have three alumni startups: Alokai, Authologic and Slicker), we try to make sure they talk to every YC alumni from our network, get to know them, collect their feedback regarding the pitch and the product and potentially also earn a recommendation that would help them get through the noise of thousands of other applications.
If you are a CEE founder applying to Y Combinator, the CEE alumni should be your main source of knowledge and mentorship. Use them and abuse them as it’s in everyone’s interest to get more YC founders from Central & Eastern Europe.
I found 18 YC startups from Ukraine 🇺🇦, 17 from Poland 🇵🇱, 5 from Slovenia 🇸🇮, Belarus⚪ 🔴⚪ & Estonia 🇪🇪, 4 from Georgia 🇬🇪, 3 from Romania 🇷🇴 & Lithuania 🇷🇴 , 2 from Czechia 🇨🇿, Slovakia 🇸🇰, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Hungary 🇭🇺 & Croatia 🇭🇷 and one from Latvia 🇱🇻. I hope this makes trying to reach some of them out a little bit easier!
Ukraine 🇺🇦
- Gleb Arshinov, Alexander Dymo — Acunote, W11
- Dmytro Zaporozhets — GitLab, W15
- Oleg Rogynskyy — People.ai, S16
- Yaroslav Azhnyuk, Olexandr Neskin, Andrey Klen — Petcube, W16
- Sasha Rohachova , Pavlo Razumovskyi — InkHunter, S18
- Yurij Riphyak, Nikita Voloshin, Anton Mishchenko — YouTeam, W18
- Daryna Kulya — OpenPhone, S18
- Veronika Yurchuk, Kostyantyn Shysh — Traces AI, S19
- Yuriy Zaremba, Oleg Z., x2 alums — Axdraft, W19
- Roman Teslyuk — EARTH AI, S19
- Eugene Zasoba — Somatic, W20
- Yurii Kyparus — Lalabox, W21
- Sasha Miagkyi, Igor Shelvinskyi — Outloud, S21
- Stacy Pavlyshyna, Roman Sevast — Awesomic, S21
- Anton Vaisburd, Kirill Kirykov, Volodymyr Sofinskyi — Datrics, W21
- Artem Bugara, Maksym Sugonyaka — NewsCatcher, S22
- Vlad Matsiiako — Infiscal, W23
- Yuriy Zaremba, Oleg Z. — AiSDR, S23
Poland 🇵🇱
- Ela Madej, Mariusz Lusiak, Joanna Socha — Credictive, 2012
- Jakub Krzych, Lukasz Kostka — Estimote, 2013
- Matt Drozdzynski, Staszek Kolarzowski — Plane, 2017
- Piotr Grudzień, Dominik Posmyk — Quickchat.ai, 2018
- Zuzanna Brzosko — Sixfold Bioscience, 2018
- Maciej Lobodzinski — Stoic, 2019
- Ania Lipinska — Notabene 2020
- Adam Koszek — Segmed, 2020
- Wojciech Daniło, Sylwia Brodacka — Enso, 2021
- Jaroslaw Sygitowicz, Krzysztof Klimczak, Marek Rogozinski — Authologic, 2021
- Patrick Friday, Filip Rakowski, Bart Roszkowski — Alokai, 2021
- Patryk Wiatr — Turion Space, 2021
- Maciej Szcześnik — Vinci Games, 2022
- Fil Twarowski — Rift, 2023
- Michał Mgeładze-Arciuch — Yoneda Labs, 2024
- Filip Kozera — Wordware, 2024
- Weronika Ślesak, Piotr Jedryszek — Evolvere, 2024
Estonia 🇪🇪
- Mattias Lepp — Click And Grow, S15
- Hendrik Roosna — Upgraded, S16
- Kaarel Kotkas, Janer Gorohhov — Veriff, W18
- Prashanth Balasubramanian — Striga, W21
- Vahur, Paula — Membo, S21
Slovenia 🇸🇮
- Jugoslav Petkovic, Grisa Soba — Flaviar, S14
- Matevž Petek — Povio, W14
- Miha Mlakar — Tingles, W18 & Popsy, S22
- Matic Perovšek, Roq Xever — PredictLeads, S19
- Tilen Travnik, Luka Sinček, Maj Hrovat — Juicy Marbles, W21
Belarus ⚪ 🔴⚪
- Dmitry Birulia — Veryfi, W17
- Vasili Shynkarenka,Maksim Abramchuk — Storyline, W18
- Sergei Lepchenkov — GiveAway, W20
- Michael Astreiko, Ilya Kisel — Synder,S21
- Alexander Nevedovsky — Socap, W23
Georgia 🇬🇪
- Nodar Daneliya — Shuttle, S20
- Gega Tsurtsumi — PAYZE, S21
- Ana Robakidze — Theneo, W22
- Stepan Parunashvili and Joe Averbukh — Instant, S22
Lithuania 🇱🇹
- Lukas Kaminskis, Tomas Moska, Benas Sidlauskas — Turing College, W21
- Karolis Narkevicius — Humaans, W21
- Antanas Žilinskas — Entangl, S24
Romania 🇷🇴
- Razvan Roman — Two Tap, W14
- Bogdan Apostol, Raluca Apostol — Nestor, S18
- Dragoș Bulugean — Archbee, S21
Czechia 🇨🇿
- Oskar Koristka, Jiri Trecak — Supernova, W19
- Jan Oboril, Daniel Vlasits — Yoneda Labs, W23
Slovakia 🇸🇰
- Jakub Jurových — Deepnote, S19
- Miroslav Gasparek, Marian Kupculak — Sensible Biotechnologies, S21
Bulgaria 🇧🇬
- Nick Gospodinov — Mandel AI, S23
- Dani Penev, Ivan Valkov — Slicker, S23
Croatia 🇭🇷
- Matija Šošić — Wasp, W21
- Zvonimir Sabljić, Leon Ostrez — Pythagora, W24
Hungary 🇭🇺
- Viktor Benei, Daniel Balla, Barnabás Birmacher — Bitrise, W17
- Peter Marton, András Tóth — OpenMeter, W23
Latvia 🇱🇻
- Janis Putrams, Dainis Kruze — Aerones, W18
Anyone missing?
Let me know if I’ve missed anyone or if you have worked as a founding engineer / early employee at any Y Combinator startup and you’re willing to help founders makes sense of YC! The more, the merrier!
Are you a CEE founder applying to Y Combinator?
We’ve backed three YC companies from CEE already as SMOK Ventures (Alokai, Authologic and Slicker) and I’m always happy to help review YC applications of fellow CEE founders whether you’re based in CEE or elsewhere in the world. Shoot me yours at borys@smok.vc if you’d like a second opinion!
