Merlin AI YC Application

Summer 2024Active

Merlin AI went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2024 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 2024
Industry: B2B
Team size: 28
Status: Active
Launched: 2024

Founders

Sneha KumariFounder
Ayantika DeyFounder
Kumar SiddharthaFounder

What Merlin AI does

Merlin is an AI-powered ERP for construction companies. We provide construction companies with a single, AI-powered platform to manage their entire business operations. Our platform unifies project management, materials management, finance, estimating, and CRM - traditionally scattered across multiple systems - into one cohesive solution. For the first time, construction firms can automate and oversee every aspect of their projects in a single, intuitive system. Today, construction companies pay for 8-17 different tools - that we eliminate the need for. We reduce - Manual work by 60% - Cut software costs by $10,000 monthly - Complete projects 3x faster. Why Now? We're witnessing a perfect storm of factors: decades of stagnation in traditional ERP systems, a multi-billion-dollar industry built on misaligned incentives, and the transformative potential of AI. This confluence creates a rare cyclical opportunity for market upheaval. The last major shift in this space occurred in the 1990s with the advent of digital systems, and now, 30 years later, we're on the cusp of another seismic change. Customers are crying out for innovation and as AI reshapes the landscape, early customer signals indicate an eagerness for smarter, more efficient systems. It's a unique window of opportunity that opens perhaps once in a multi-decade chance to redefine an entire industry's operational backbone. Team: KS, a BITS Pilani grad and successful startup co-founder, and Ayantika, an IIT alumni and tech expert, bring extensive coding and product development expertise together bringing about over a decade of technical expertise. Sneha ( that’s me), with over a decade of experience in supply chain management and lean manufacturing within the construction industry, has lived the pain of using ERPs in this industry.

Merlin AI's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Merlin AI, Summer 2024 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Merlin AI

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI powered ERP for Construction

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

We built an AI-powered ERP system tailored for construction companies. Our platform consolidates project management, material tracking, finance, estimating, and CRM into a single tool. It replaces the 8-17 different software tools construction firms currently juggle, cutting manual work by 60% and project completion times by 3x.

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

We currently live in Los Angeles, CA, and plan to base the company there after YC as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Los Angeles is where we all live and where there's a strong construction industry presence. Being onsite or near customers helps us understand their pain and build the right product.

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 Merlin AI YC application?

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