Y Combinator Managing Partner to Depart Accelerator for New Fund

Dalton Caldwell, a managing partner at Y Combinator and one of the longest serving partners at the accelerator, is leaving after over twelve years to start a venture capital firm to back early-stage companies, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Caldwell will make Series A investments into AI businesses and use artificial intelligence when filtering through startups, according to one of those people. Y Combinator had a growth fund for several years that invested in more mature companies, but discontinued it in 2023.

Caldwell, who is transitioning to a partner emeritus role at Y Combinator, is starting the firm with Paul Buchheit, a partner emeritus at Y Combinator and one of the creators of Gmail, as well as Bryan Berg, a staff software engineer at Stripe. The departures and fund efforts have not been previously reported.