ReactWise YC Application

Summer 2024Active

ReactWise 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: B2BEngineering, Product and Design
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2024

Founders

Alexander PombergerFounder
Daniel WighFounder

What ReactWise does

Our Mission: We aim to accelerate and automate chemical process development by equipping wet-lab chemists with the power of data-driven optimization and robotic execution of experiments. The Problem: The discovery of novel pharmaceuticals is one of our most important weapons in fighting disease. However, the drug development pipeline is often held up for many months during the design of chemical processes to manufacture these drugs at scale, delaying FDA trials and lengthening the time until drug launch. Designing chemical processes involves the identification of suitable parameters such as catalyst/temperature/solvent. Currently process development is often done via tedious trial-and-error experimentation (slow) or exhaustive screening (expensive and wasteful). Our Approach: In our research, we have developed algorithms for chemical process optimization, which leverage transfer learning and Bayesian optimization. We validated the algorithms in the wet lab, showing an up to 95% reduction in required experiments and cost compared to exhaustive screening. We have made our approaches accessible to chemists through our user-friendly no-code software platform and to automated laboratory equipment with our API.

ReactWise's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

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

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

ReactWise

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

AI Co-Pilot for Chemical Process Optimization

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

We built software that helps wet-lab chemists design chemical processes with fewer experiments. Our platform uses our transfer learning and Bayesian optimization algorithms to reduce trial-and-error and exhaustive testing. Chemists interact with a no-code interface or automate experiments via API integration with lab robots.

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

We live in London, UK, and the company is based here now. After YC, we would continue to be based in London while accessing YC's network globally.

Explain your decision regarding location.

London is a major hub for life sciences and chemical research, close to many early users and collaborators. We want to grow locally while leveraging YC's support.

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 ReactWise YC application?

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