Synapse Semiconductor YC Application

Summer 2026Active

Durham

Synapse Semiconductor went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2026 batch as a Industrials 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 2026
Industry: Industrials
Location: Durham
Team size: 2
Status: Active
Launched: 2026

Founders

Sanjeev ChauhanFounder/CEO
Tania RoyFounder

What Synapse Semiconductor does

We want to push machines to where humans cant go. Presidential early career award winning Duke Semiconductor ECE Faculty Tania Roy and Sanjeev Chauhan are building a frontier semiconductor research lab. Their focus is on solving physical AI challenges from the semiconductor device level and building products around the moat of impossible to copy innovation. Their first work is on a new vision sensor that can run neural network filters right in the camera pixels and only collect data that machines care about. As physical AI develops, machines needs to understand the world around them if they aim to interact with them.

Synapse Semiconductor's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Synapse Semiconductor, Summer 2026 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Synapse Semiconductor

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Semiconductors that run AI vision in the sensor.

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

We're building new semiconductors that combine computing with vision, starting with a vision sensor that can run neural network filters directly on the camera pixels. This means the sensor itself only collects and outputs data relevant to machine perception, bypassing raw video most machines don't need. Instead of sending a firehose of useless data upstream, our chip detects and processes what matters at the edge.

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

We are in Durham, NC, USA and the company will stay based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Our research expertise and lab access are in Durham, and the region has strong resources for semiconductor and hardware startups.

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 Synapse Semiconductor YC application?

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