You may be right. I was drawing the conclusion from the stat about 55% prefunded startups, but that still leaves 45% w YC as first investor (45% of 414 is a sizeable 186). If you add 29% as only idea based, still leaves 66 at least which had product and YC as the first cheque. A couple of years ago that was close to the batch size. Probably in the absolute numbers, they are still funding those moonshots.
Thanks for the list. Many seems very promising. So are some of the others like Andy which had a post yesterday.
Is there a Launch HN list button hidden somewhere? It would be handy to have one just like we have for Ask HN or Show HN.
Edit: There is! https://news.ycombinator.com/lists
Not really a button but yes, the list: https://news.ycombinator.com/launches.
Launch HN: Carbon Crusher (YC W22) – Carbon Negative Roads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30793076 - March 2022 (93 comments)
Launch HN: Charge Robotics (YC S21) - Robots that build solar farms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30780455 - March 2022 (79 comments)
Launch HN: AirMyne (YC W22) – Capturing CO2 from air at industrial scale - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30712229 - March 2022 (192 comments)
Launch HN: Living Carbon (YC W20) – Trees that capture and store more carbon - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30672841 - March 2022 (256 comments)
Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30627418 - March 2022 (194 comments)
Launch HN: Phase Biolabs (YC W22) – Converting CO2 to Carbon-Neutral Chemicals - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30557288 - March 2022 (88 comments)
These all happen to be climate-related but I'm pretty sure that's just a coincidence. One thing's for sure, YC is just as interested in funding high-risk-high-potential-value startups as it ever was.