Y Combinator has announced a new batch of startups. Ukrainian defense companies will be able to participate remotely

Leading startup accelerator Y Combinator has announced a new intake and exceptional conditions for Ukrainian defense tech startups. Accelerator partner Jared Friedman said the team is ready to make an exception to the general rules, allowing founders from Ukraine to participate in the program remotely, as not everyone has the opportunity to leave the country due to martial law.

This statement was in response to a post by Ukrainian entrepreneur Oleg Kotsur on social network X, who pointed out that Y Combinator’s standard rules effectively deprive founders from countries at war of the opportunity to participate.

Key details of the program

• The winter acceleration program will run from January to March 2026. Program participants will receive $500,000 in investments, which will be provided in two tranches before the start of the training part.

• To do this, you need to open a legal entity in the state of Delaware. The deadline for applications is November 10.

• Startups approved by the commission will be invited to a video conference interview in November or December. The decision on participation is usually made on the day of the interview.

About Y Combinator

The accelerator has already invested in over 5,000 young companies, including such billion-dollar giants as Airbnb, Dropbox, Coinbase, and Stripe. The total value of companies in the Y Combinator portfolio exceeds $800 billion. Companies with Ukrainian founders, including Awesomic, AiSDR, and Petcube, are already graduates of its programs.

Y Combinator, which previously did not accept defense projects, has recently changed its rules and is now actively expanding its portfolio in the defense sector.

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