Carrot Labs YC Application
Carrot Labs went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2026 batch as a B2B company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.
- YC batch
- Winter 2026
- Industry
- B2B
- Team size
- 2
- Status
- Active
- Launched
- 2026
Founders
Christopher AckerFounder
Yuta BabaFounder
What Carrot Labs does
The problem: AI spend is scattered across multiple provider billing consoles that don't talk to each other. Teams can't answer simple questions like "which customer is driving our Anthropic bill?" or "is this feature profitable after AI costs?" without manually pulling data from each provider and stitching it together in a spreadsheet. What SuperPenguin does: SuperPenguin tracks AI spend across 14 providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Modal, Cursor and more). Zero-code setup: connect an API key and costs sync automatically with model-level breakdowns, trends, and forecasts. Per-request attribution: add two lines of Python SDK to tag every AI call by customer, feature, or team. Slack alerts on budget thresholds and spend anomalies. Most teams are set up in under five minutes. We help companies see where their AI money goes and whether it's worth it.
Carrot Labs's YC application, reconstructed
Y Combinator application
Carrot Labs, Winter 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.
- Founders2
- Company7
- Progress7
- Idea4
- Equity3
- Curious2
- Batch Preference1
Company
Carrot Labs
AI Cost Management: Track AI spend by provider
We built SuperPenguin, a platform that tracks and attributes AI spending across 14 providers including OpenAI and Anthropic. It connects to billing APIs with zero code, breaks down costs by model and request, and allows tagging via a small Python SDK to link spend to customers, features, or teams. We alert users on Slack when budgets or anomalies happen, helping teams understand exactly where their AI dollars go and if features are profitable.
We live in San Francisco, CA, and the company will remain based here after YC.
San Francisco is the main hub for AI startups and our users. Being here helps us stay close to early customers and the ecosystem we're building in.
21 more answers in the full application
Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the real Carrot Labs YC application?
No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Carrot Labs's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Carrot Labs would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.
What YC batch was Carrot Labs in?
Carrot Labs was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2026 batch.
Who founded Carrot Labs?
Carrot Labs was founded by Christopher Acker, Yuta Baba.
What does Carrot Labs do?
AI Cost Management: Track and attribute AI spend across every provider
How do I read the full reconstructed application?
Create a free Round Funded account. The full 26-answer version of Carrot Labs's application, and every other YC batch, is in YC Insights.
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