Locus YC Application

Fall 2025Active

Locus went through Y Combinator in the Fall 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: Fall 2025
Industry: B2BEngineering, Product and Design
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2025

Founders

Cole DermottFounder

What Locus does

We make your agents pay. As agents evolve from tools into dependable, autonomous actors, they’ll need the ability to execute open-ended workflows end-to-end. This inevitably means payments: accessing paywalled data, transacting for services or with other specialist agents. But autonomy requires guardrails. Businesses and developers will need a way to ensure their agents only spend how much and on what they’re supposed to. The machine economy is coming, and Locus (YC F25) is building the connector businesses will need to participate. We connect agents securely to funds, letting you define permissions and limits for every transaction. Each payment is traceable, auditable, and fully reconcilable with your existing financial stack.

Locus's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Locus, Fall 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Locus

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Payment infrastructure for AI agents

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

We build a payment platform that lets AI agents transact autonomously but with strict controls. Our product connects agents to funds with permissions and spending limits, so businesses can let their agents pay for data, services, or other agents confidently. Every transaction is traceable and auditable, fitting into existing finance systems.

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

We don't have a fixed location; we work remotely. After YC, we plan to stay distributed or base ourselves wherever makes sense as the company grows.

Explain your decision regarding location.

We are remote because it lets us focus on building quickly and reach talent flexibly. YC can help us decide long term.

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 Locus YC application?

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