KERNEL YC Application

Summer 2025Active

KERNEL went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2025 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: Summer 2025
Industry: B2BInfrastructure
Team size: 6
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Catherine JueCo-Founder & CEO
Rafael GarciaCo-founder & CTO

What KERNEL does

Kernel is crazy fast, open source infra for AI agents to access the internet 🧠🕸️ - Built on unikernels for crazy fast cold starts and low resource usage - Sub-150ms cold starts on managed headful browsers - Built-in stealth mode with residential proxies and automatic CAPTCHA solving - Full observability: session recording, live view, and full logs - Persistent sessions that maintain cookies and auth across invocations - Native support for all browser and computer use frameworks - SOC 2 compliant and HIPAA-ready Trusted by Cash App, Rye, and 1000+ others. Backed by Accel & Y Combinator (S25).

KERNEL's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

KERNEL, Summer 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

KERNEL

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Crazy fast, open source infra for AI internet agents

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

We build an open source infrastructure for AI agents to access and interact with the internet. Our platform uses unikernels for extremely fast cold starts - under 150ms on managed browsers - while maintaining persistent sessions with cookies and auth. We add stealth features like residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving so agents can operate reliably at scale. Plus, Kernel provides full observability with session recording and live views, making it easy for developers to debug and monitor their AI-driven workflows. We're SOC 2 compliant and HIPAA-ready for enterprise use. Our users range from startups to large companies like Cash App and Rye.

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

We live and work in San Francisco, CA, and plan for the company to remain based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Being in San Francisco puts us close to developers using AI tooling and allows us to tap into the deep technical community and investor network needed to grow Kernel.

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 KERNEL YC application?

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