YC DATA · 6,287 COMPANIES · OCTOBER 2, 2026
FORMATION · FIRST SURFACED WINTER 2023

Search Engine

Return to Signal
ACCELERATED · WINTER 202382% confidenceObserved October 2, 2026Source: Description cluster · corroborated
The count
3.64×

2/937 → 10/1288; +0.56 percentage points of formation share.

S08S21S23W25S26F26
Open questions naming this formation — 1
OPEN

Independent outcome evaluation for AI-mediated learning

More personalized explanations and answers do not establish durable learning, calibrated confidence, transfer, or freedom from answer dependence.

NEXT INVESTIGATION

Compare AI-learning products using longitudinal assessments of retention, transfer, misconception, confidence calibration, and declining assistance.

The companies behind the signal — 10
Winter 2023
Epsilon

AI Search Engine for Academic Research. Get answers to research questions with citations from the academic literature.

Winter 2023
LinkGrep

AI browser copilot for teams. Modern teams work in the browser. But browsers weren't built for teams 😔. This leads to a bunch of problems like: - Knowledge/info that is hard to find (links that get lost, documentation that gets, buried, silos, etc) - Poor collaboration - Inefficient workflows LinkGrep is an AI browser copilot that solves those problems by making your browser team friendly. Specifically we help teams: 1. 🔗 Keep track of links, documents, and more automatically. With LinkGrep you'll never have to manually add or save a link. 2. 🔍 Find information that matters. LinkGrep connects with your existing tools like Notion and Slack and will automatically suggest relevant information to you as your browse (we have semantic search that you can fallback on). Demo: https://youtu.be/jwcPGDRy4oQ 3. 👥 Collaborate better. LinkGrep lets you leave notes and comments directly on web page

Summer 2022
Phind

AI search engine. Phind is an AI search engine. It uses multi-step reasoning to find the best answer for your question and generative UI to present it in the most beautiful and interactive way.

Summer 2022
Artemis Search

A search technology that actually finds what you’re looking for.. Artemis Search is a vector database search with a twist. We use special-purpose deep-learning models instead of using textual / semantic similarity to evaluate how good a search result is. This enables us to actually reason how well search results match the intent of the search query, eliminating the problems that come from evaluating search results on how much they look like the search query.

Winter 2022
Andi

AI Search for the Next Generation. Instead of just links, Andi AI gives you answers - like chatting with a smart friend. Andi is a new type of search engine that uses generative AI and language models combined with live data to generate factually correct answers to questions, and to explain and summarize information combined from the best sources. Andi works as a search chatbot that's ad-free and privacy-focused. Ask Andi to... ✅ Answer questions 🧠 Find, summarize and explain information 🔍 Navigate and search the web Search is broken because of SEO spam, ads, and surveillance capitalism. Andi cuts through the clutter to get you straight to the knowledge you need. It presents results visually in a way that's easy to understand with a simple chat interface, and protects you from ad tech and distraction. You can try the search app at https://andisearch.com

Winter 2022
Shaped

The real-time retrieval engine for search, feeds, and agents.. Connect your data. Train your models. Query text, user or session context and retrieve relevant results in milliseconds. Explore our case studies to see how we’ve helped leading brands drive significant engagement and revenue: https://www.shaped.ai/case-study.

Summer 2021
Secoda

Secoda is the AI layer for your Analytics. We believe that finding the right data shouldn’t require a technical background or hours of digging. That’s why Secoda applies AI to transform messy, siloed analytics into a searchable, intuitive knowledge layer—so every question gets a fast, useful answer. Our vision is to become the AI search engine for your company’s analytics, making data discovery as seamless as finding a website on Google. To do that, Secoda gets data AI-ready by unifying governance, cataloging, observability, and lineage into one trusted, easy-to-use platform—empowering every team to move faster, stay compliant, and make smarter decisions.

Summer 2021
Archbee

TURN STATIC DOCS INTO INSTANT ANSWERS. Build beautiful knowledge portals that are easy to navigate, search, share and contribute to.

Summer 2021
Hyperbrowser

Web infra for AI agents. Hyperbrowser.ai is the internet infrastructure for AI agents. We provide instant, scalable browser infra with built-in CAPTCHA solving, proxy management, and anti-bot detection. Developers use us to power their AI agents for data collection, testing, and web automation at scale. We're backed by YC, Accel, SV Angel, and others.

Summer 2021
Sleek

Browser automation for businesses.. Sleek builds AI agents that automate important eCommerce flows for online shoppers. We work with consumer businesses to power these experiences across mobile and desktop via the browser.

Inside Search Engine

Other / unclassified

Measured-window members of Search Engine that could not be assigned to a narrower shared YC tag or industry without forcing a classification.

Search

A primary internal company segment within Search Engine, derived deterministically from the shared yc tag “Search”. This is a classification of current window members, not a causal layer or a separate time trend.

Developer Tools

A primary internal company segment within Search Engine, derived deterministically from the shared yc tag “Developer Tools”. This is a classification of current window members, not a causal layer or a separate time trend.

Outside corroboration — does anyone else see this?

No comparable outside activity is connected yet.

Similarly named categories — not necessarily the same thing

These share a word with “Search Engine” but are tracked as separate categories. The real overlap below is the actual share of Search Engine’s companies also found in that category — not a guess.

Citation

Cambrian Signal, “Search Engine,” publication yc-2026-10-02-semantic-v8, snapshot October 2, 2026.
cambrian.jafar.com/formation/search-engine

Search Engine · Cambrian Signal