Kernel (YC S25)

We're hiring! Visit our website to learn more and apply. 👉 http://www.onkernel.com Come build the future of AI-native cloud infrastructure with us!

Introducing 🌍 Flexible Network Proxies - When enterprises adopt browser agents, engineering teams often encounter challenges when promoting their automations production: network control. Enterprises need to route traffic through specific IPs, regions, and VPNs — but managing proxy infrastructure adds operational overhead and risk. At Block, I saw this firsthand: Afterpay is offered globally, and sometimes forward deployed engineers need to access and test partner websites across multiple regions. Proxies make it possible to automate QA anywhere in the world. Today we’re launching 🌍 Flexible Network Proxies — managed network routing for browser automations. Choose Datacenter, ISP, Residential, or bring your own proxy. Define where and how your browsers connect, with zero infrastructure to manage. This capability unlocks more secure, compliant, and region-aware automations at scale — all running on Kernel’s isolated unikernel sandboxes. Check out a demo: https://lnkd.in/esZHxybg And get started here: https://lnkd.in/em7czTwZ

Agents promise to relieve our lives from drudgery and nuisance. But browser infrastructure as it is today keeps that promise from becoming reality by making everything a fight to work. That’s where Kernel (YC S25) comes in. Kernel is a browser-as-a-service API that lets agents use the internet like people do. Kernel’s incredibly fast—spinning up browsers in milliseconds—and ships with live-views and replays so users can see what their agent does and take control when needed. Most notably, Kernel is the first to launch an authentication platform that lets consumers grant agents specific, controlled permissions on their behalf. Today, we've announced that we've led Kernel's Series A, because we believe that co-founders Catherine Jue and Rafael Garcia are the perfect team to build the best browser infrastructure for agents. Read more from Dan Levine here: https://lnkd.in/en4z4C2D

I’m thrilled to announce that Kernel (YC S25) has raised $22M in Seed + Series A funding, led by Accel, to scale our browser infrastructure platform for AI agents. We're also grateful to have the support of Y Combinator, Cintrifuse Capital, Vercel Ventures, Refinery Ventures, SV Angel, and angel investors who’ve built some of the most important developer platforms of the past decade: Paul Graham (YC), David Cramer (Sentry), Solomon Hykes (Docker), Zach Sims (Codecademy), and Charlie Marsh (Astral). = The reason to build Kernel has always been clear. LLMs can automate nearly any workflow on the internet, but browsers — the critical interface to that work — are fragile, hard to scale, and expensive to run. Kernel solves this. We provide browsers-as-a-service so AI agents can use the internet the same way people do. Our edge is our ability to deliver reliable browsers that spin up in milliseconds, persist state across workflows, and gracefully support human-in-the-loop interactions. Companies like Cash App, Rye, and countless YC start-ups are already running production workloads on Kernel. = As part of this announcement, I’m excited to share Kernel Agent Authentication — an identity and permissions layer that lets developers safely authorize agents to take actions on real user accounts, with full auditability and scope control. This makes it possible for sanctioned AI agents to operate in production environments with the same security guarantees as any other trusted system component. We’ll be announcing partnerships soon as we bring more platforms, identity providers, and developers into the ecosystem. These are all steps toward our broader vision of making Kernel the OS-level infrastructure platform where sanctioned AI agents can securely interact with the web, and we're just getting started. Come join us! = 👉 Read more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/e3tBy7ni 🫆 Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eBGbZspp 🙋🏻♀️ And we’re hiring! We’d love to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/epV3FriM

Back in 2012, I was a first-time founder in Y Combinator's S12 batch, working on Clever Inc. with my cofounders Tyler Bosmeny and Dan Carroll. I was 24, with absolutely no idea what I was doing. Thirteen years later, I’ve just finished YC’s S25 batch with Kernel (YC S25). I’m now 37 with a wife, four kids, and a decade of startup experience. YC has changed a lot in that time — the batch size, the way community forms, how companies launch, and the expectations by Demo Day — and I have too. I wrote a blog about how the program feels different the second time, and what it’s like doing YC as “the old guy.” The biggest change for me has been perspective: the highs are still high and the lows are still stressful, but they don’t feel existential the way they did in 2012. If you’re curious about how YC has evolved, or what it’s like going through as a second-time founder, read my blog: https://lnkd.in/gX5nGh_u

Kernel MCP's search_docs tool + Anthropic 's Claude Code = PB&J for vibe coding browser automations 🥜🫐 Install it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eSQidX72

🚀 We’re hiring: Founding Technical Content Marketer @ Kernel (YC S25) 🚀 Kernel is looking for a talented Founding Technical Content Marketer to join us in SF (remote-friendly considered). If you or someone you know lives at the intersection of dev tools, browser automation, and AI agents—and loves writing—please read on or share this! What you'll do: - Write deep technical content: blog posts, tutorials, guides, docs on topics like persistence, stealth mode, unikernel startup, and live-view debugging. - Tell Kernel’s story: use cases, customer stories, why we exist, what problems we solve, and how we’re different. - Run our blog + newsletter: grow a consistent voice for Kernel across blog, newsletter, and social, highlighting features, demos, and open-source projects. - Shape social content: repurpose long-form content into short, scroll-stopping posts. Keep Kernel present in the developer/agent ecosystem. - Spot trends: stay ahead of conversations around agentic AI, infra, and automation, and plug Kernel into those discussions. What we're looking for: - You love writing and are comfortable with code (you’ve coded, or at least vibe code with ease). - You understand developer workflows and can pick up browser automation frameworks (Playwright, Puppeteer, Browser Use, Computer Use). - You can switch between long-form content (tutorials, whitepapers) and snappy social posts. - You love high velocity environments: Kernel ships fast, and you do too! You can draft, edit, and publish multiple pieces a week across formats (blogs, docs, social), balancing speed with technical depth. - You’re plugged into developer + startup culture, following what’s trending. - Experience with SEO + growth of social presence. Please share / refer if someone amazing in your network comes to mind. Tag them or DM me. Thanks! https://lnkd.in/e8HxedyK

Kernel (YC S25) provides browsers-as-a-service so developers can build AI agents and automations that work on any website. Today, we’re introducing 🫆Kernel Profiles: persistent browser sessions for your agents. Web automations often break on login. Without a way to remember cookies or local storage, agents using websites have to start from scratch every time. Profiles change that: log in once then reuse the same authenticated state across future sessions. This unlocks a huge range of workflows: authenticated agents scheduling appointments, retrieving order details, downloading documents. Any automation that depends on being logged in is now as simple as reusing a Kernel profile. Profiles are also fully compatible with Kernel’s security model: every browser runs inside an isolated micro VM, and state is persisted only where you choose. And like the rest of our building blocks, Profiles is fully open source under Apache 2.0. With Profiles, Kernel makes it easier for developers to build reliable, stateful web agents that act on behalf of users — another step in our mission to provide the infrastructure layer for AI to safely interact with the Internet. 🎥 Demo: https://lnkd.in/eDJ7Ts9H 💻 Docs: https://lnkd.in/euv-ySpb ⭐️ Github: https://lnkd.in/e-54SQB2 ✍️ Blog: https://lnkd.in/eb3gWZxY

YC’s new batch (S25) is live and investors are already swarming 🔥 Harmonic’s data highlights the 20 startups attracting the most attention. The signal is clear: this batch is dominated by AI-native and infrastructure-first companies. ▫️ Pally (YC S25) – Personal relationship management with AI insights ▫️ Avelis Health (YC S25) – AI auditing for medical claims ▫️ Motives (YC S25) – Video-based market and user intelligence ▫️ IronGrid – Insurance-backed warranties for battery storage ▫️ Imprezia – Native ad engine for LLMs and chatbots ▫️ Finto – Automated invoice processing with AI agents ▫️ Kernel – Cloud platform for web automation agents ▫️ Nottelabs (YC S25) – Framework for browser-based AI agents ▫️ BootLoop (YC S25) – AI-driven firmware development and debugging ▫️ Convexia (YC S25) – Automated sourcing of early-stage drug candidates ▫️ Closera (YC S25) – AI marketing workflows for real estate ▫️ AgentMail (YC S25) – Email API purpose-built for AI agents ▫️ Alter (YC S25) – Secure gateway connecting AI tools to enterprise data ▫️ Channel3 (YC S25) – API for AI-powered online shopping ▫️ Albacore Inc. (YC S25) – Autonomous underwater vehicles ▫️ Wedge (YC S25) – Compliance and monitoring for AI in healthcare ▫️ Halluminate (YC S25) – Testing and deployment automation for AI apps ▫️ Cactus (YC S25) – Run AI models directly on devices and wearables YC continues to be the strongest early-stage pipeline in the world. 👉 If you were writing checks today, which of these would you back? Image source: Lenny's Newsletter