ByteAsk Raises $1M Pre-seed

ByteAsk, a San Francisco-based startup building AI coding agents for C and C++, has raised $1 million in a pre-seed funding round. The company, which is part of the Y Combinator Fall 2026 batch, aims to address performance gaps in AI tools for low-latency systems and critical infrastructure.

Investors

The round was led by Y Combinator, with participation from Entrepreneur First and angel investors from global quantitative trading firms.

ByteAsk Use of Funds

The fresh capital will be used for infrastructure and product development. The startup plans to hire engineers in San Francisco and India, invest in GPU compute and training data, and build enterprise-grade security, privacy, and on-premises infrastructure for clients in sensitive industries.

About ByteAsk

Founded in June 2026 by IIT-Delhi alumni Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, ByteAsk is a San Francisco-based developer-tools company building an AI coding agent specialized in C and C++ development. Its agent works directly from the terminal, edits code, and then uses the project's actual compilers, sanitizers, debuggers, and test suites to verify the changes before presenting a diff for review.

Funding Details

Company Website: https://byteask.ai

Company: ByteAsk
Raised: $1M
Round: Pre-seed
Funding Date: September 24, 2026
Lead Investor: Y Combinator
Additional Investors: Entrepreneur First, various angel investors
Software Category: AI Coding Tools
Source: https://entrepreneur.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/funding/byteask-raises-1-million-in-yc-led-pre-seed-round/134431556