Y Combinator Startup Accelerator Gets Its Own $2 Million in Funding
By Anna Johnson on March 18th, 2009Marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has led an investment round of $2 million in Y Combinator, a provider of seed-stage funding and mentoring to promising startup Internet and technology companies.
Sequoia, along with three angel investors – Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit and Aydin Senkut – have not directly invested in Y Combinator, but have, instead, invested the capital into a fund to be managed by Y Combinator.
This fund will be available to invest in startups that go through Y Combinator’s startup accelerator program.
Y Combinator’s program involves investing a small amount of capital in largely brand new startups, while also providing them with mentoring as they work on their projects, and then allowing them to pitch to potential investors at a demo day.
Y Combinator invests $5,000 per company and $5,000 per founder in return for a 6 percent stake in the company.
With more money to invest in more companies, Y Combinator will presumably have the ability to kick-start more companies.
