CellType YC Application

Winter 2026Active

CellType went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2026 batch as a Healthcare 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: HealthcareDrug Discovery and Delivery
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

David van DijkCo-Founder & CEO
Ivan VrkicCo-Founder

What CellType does

CellType is building an agentic drug company. AI agents that run the full drug discovery pipeline on top of biological foundation models that simulate human biology. Our core technology, developed with Google DeepMind, has already discovered and validated a new cancer treatment signal. We’re working with Top 10 pharma.

CellType's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

CellType, Winter 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

CellType

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

The agentic drug company. We simulate human biology.

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We are building AI agents that run the entire drug discovery pipeline on top of biological foundation models that simulate human biology. Our platform can predict how drugs interact with biological systems, enabling us to discover new treatments faster and more reliably than traditional methods. We've already found and validated a new cancer treatment signal using this tech.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live and work in New York City, and after YC, CellType will remain based here.

Explain your decision regarding location.

New York City has the biotech ecosystem and pharma partners we need close by. We can recruit scientists and engineers here and maintain strong relationships with top pharma companies already collaborating with us.

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.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real CellType YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from CellType's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like CellType would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.