Payna YC Application

Winter 2026Active

Payna 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: B2BFinance and Accounting
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Aaron ChenFounder
He SongFounder

What Payna does

Payna is building the AI licensing agent for regulated companies. We automate the filings, renewals, amendments, and regulator follow ups required to get licensed and stay licensed across jurisdictions, so teams no longer have to manage compliance through spreadsheets, email threads, and expensive outside firms. Starting with financial services categories like lending, debt collection, and money transmission, Payna helps companies move faster, stay compliant, and scale without adding compliance headcount linearly.

Payna's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Payna

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI Licensing Agent for Regulated Industries

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

We are building an AI licensing agent that automates the filings, renewals, amendments, and regulator follow-ups regulated companies need to stay licensed in multiple jurisdictions. Our product replaces manual compliance tasks managed via spreadsheets, email chains, and expensive external firms, starting with financial services categories like lending, debt collection, and money transmission. This helps regulated teams move faster and scale compliance without linear headcount growth.

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

We live in San Francisco, CA, and the company will continue to be based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is the hub for financial services startups and AI innovation, making it the ideal base to build a product serving regulated finance companies. Being here keeps us close to early customers and potential partners.

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 Payna YC application?

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