Nanotechnology Startups funded by Y Combinator (YC) 2026

Invitris radically simplifies how we create novel biological drugs. Our patent-pending technology platform turns DNA into synthetic proteins and was recently featured in the Science magazine. It makes creating new drugs >10,000x more efficient at <100x lower costs of material. Our killer application is enabling the newest generation of synthetic bacteriophages to combat antibiotic-resistant infections, which are threatening to cause more deaths than all cancers combined.

It takes 5 years for pharma to develop long lasting drug injections for chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes. Persist uses AI-driven automation to reduce formulation development time down to 2 years, a ~50% reduction.

Keylika is an early stage biopharma startup developing metal-based drugs using a platform synthesis technology to treat unmet medical needs. We then administer these drugs using proven delivery technologies to effect the best clinical outcomes. Our first product is a small molecule iron drug (new molecular entity) delivered by a wearable skin patch to treat Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA), with significantly higher safety, efficacy and tolerability over existing treatments. This is poised to be a best-in-class, potentially breakthrough therapy for treating iron deficiency without any GI side-effects (eg. nausea, constipation, diarrhea, etc.) typically associated with oral iron supplements, and without the risks, costs and side-effects associated with IV iron infusions. When approved, Keylika’s proprietary transdermal iron will be the world's first prescription iron patch. Iron deficiency is a hugely understated problem affecting about 1.6 billion people worldwide and more than 30 million in the US alone, translating to a $17B US market.

Nomic is doing for protein profiling, what Illumina did for DNA sequencing. Our core technology, the nELISA, is a next-gen immunoassay platform that transforms the ELISA into a high-throughput, high-content, and high-versatility tool. Today we developed the nELISA for high-throughput drug discovery scientists, enabling them profile 100s of proteins at 10x higher throughput and 10x lower cost compared to existing solutions. We're offering the nELISA through early access programs to HTS groups in top pharmas as well as pioneering biotechs in the space. Our goal is to create a ubiquitous technology that consolidates the broad range of legacy immunoassay toolkits that scientists use today with a single platform that can carry the science end-to-end, from discovery all the way to the clinic. We're a team of engineers, biologists, and highly-skilled lab operators that are looking to grow quickly to keep up with customer demand but also to continue developing our core technology, scale our multiplexing/throughput, and build our software stack. We're hiring on a number of positions including engineering, software, biology, and ops. Come talk to us!

Surface fouling is a costly challenge across industries, impacting medical consumables, diagnostic devices, and automotive components. Contamination from substances like mud, ice, and sludge can compromise performance and lead to frequent cleaning, repairs, and replacements. Our PFAS-free coating, which we first launched as a consumer product, has quickly expanded into industrial partnerships. It dramatically reduces contamination on critical surfaces such as glass, metal, ceramic, and now plastics too. Whether for medical devices or automotive components, our coating protects against surface fouling Currently our coatings work best on glass, metal, and ceramic surfaces.

DNA has emerged as a compelling data storage medium due to its density, longevity, and eternal relevance compared to current memory technologies. However, the high price of synthesizing DNA remains a major bottleneck for adoption of this promising storage solution. We are pioneering new approaches to synthesizing DNA for data storage with enzymes and custom digital codecs. We are building an interdisciplinary team to build the world's most scalable information infrastructure in DNA. We seek technical experts in enzyme engineering, chemistry, hardware engineering, and information theory. We also seek business development to identify emerging markets for early use cases of our technology.

Technology finds information and delivers physical products to us almost instantly. mRNA does the same for biology. At HelixNano, we see a world where treatments are cheap, progress is decentralized, and you can modify biology at the push of a button. By focusing on mRNA improvements from first principles, we’re getting there faster than we thought. Experiments that used to take months or years can be done in weeks and cost thousands instead of millions. The rate limiting step for our progress is now scientific curiosity. Rigid hierarchies and top-down decisions will miss the magic. Some of our most powerful technologies started out as side projects of junior team members. At HelixNano, every individual scientist can have a massive impact on the company's direction. And the more diverse our team, the faster we’ll find the really cool ideas. We've started rolling out some of our new tech — moving a COVID-19 vaccine candidate for the immunocompromised towards the clinic, and testing an intervention with massive environmental impact. But we’re scientists at heart, and team focus is solidly on the horizon.