Y Combinator's own terms still price a batch at two SAFEs

The record

As Y Combinator's own deal page stated when retrieved on 16 September 2026, YC's standard investment in a batch company is $500,000 split across two instruments: $125,000 on a post-money SAFE in exchange for 7 percent of the company, and $375,000 on a separate, uncapped SAFE carrying a Most Favored Nation provision. The MFN SAFE has no valuation cap of its own; the page's worked example shows it converting at whatever cap or discount a later, more favorable SAFE receives before the priced round, illustrated there as 2.5 percent of the company if that later cap were $15 million post-money.

What the sources establish

YC's own documents page confirms this mechanic, explaining that an MFN SAFE carries no cap or discount of its own because it 'automatically takes the valuation cap or discount of any SAFE you issue later,' and it dates the underlying SAFE instrument to YC's original 2013 creation, describing the post-money version as YC's standard since 2018. YC's homepage, as retrieved the same day, restates the total directly: four times a year, YC invests $500,000 in a select group of startups. Together the two pages describe one current structure — a fixed 7 percent SAFE plus an uncapped MFN SAFE — rather than a single flat check.

Scope and revision

The 7 percent figure applies only to the $125,000 tranche; the $375,000 MFN tranche's eventual percentage is not fixed at the time of investment and depends on what cap a later SAFE sets, which is why the page describes it with a worked example rather than a static number. This is YC's published structure as its own page states it today, not a historical record of what any specific earlier batch received; the documents page itself notes the post-money format only became standard in 2018, five years after the SAFE was introduced.

The decision in front of you

A founder modeling YC's dilution should model both tranches separately — a fixed 7 percent slice and a variable MFN slice whose size depends on future financing — rather than treating $500,000 as a single round at one implied valuation. This is editorial modeling guidance drawn from YC's own worked example, not a projection of what any company's next round will actually price at.

• Does a dilution model separate the fixed 7 percent SAFE from the variable MFN SAFE, or collapse them into one number?
• What is the lowest cap or best discount any SAFE issued since the batch's MFN start date has offered?
• Has this page's terms changed since 16 September 2026, the date this record reflects?

YC's own page describes a structure, not a valuation; the MFN tranche's actual cost in equity is only fixed once a priced round, or a better SAFE, sets the number it will track.