Willow

Backed byY Combinator
Total raised$4.5M
StageSeed
Founded2025
Team size1-10
HQSan Francisco, United States
IndustriesSoftwareAI/MLProductivityVoice TechnologySaaS

About Willow

Willow is building THE voice operating system that lets users control their computer entirely by voice. It writes for you today, takes actions for you tomorrow, and anticipates what you need before you ask. Willow has proven adoption from individual power users to enterprises, including Uber, Gusto, and Heidi Health. It is backed by Y Combinator and Box Group, with founders from Instacart, Reddit, Shopify, and HubSpot among its backers.

Company at a glance

Location
San Francisco, United States

Founders & Leadership

EB

Ethan Bilderbeek

Growth @ Willow | UChicago

LinkedIn
AA

Aditya Arya

Future Leader in Business & Politics | Real Estate & Innovation | Oracle-Certified Gen AI Professional

LinkedIn
AC

Agnibha Chatterjee

Eng @ Willow (YC X25)

LinkedIn
AG

Allan Guo

Chief Keyboard Killer @ Willow (Try it out 📣) | We’re hiring!

LinkedIn
JA

Joseph Ayinde

Co-founder & CEO @ Cognition | ex-OpenAI/Scale AI | Neuro + ML Research scholar @ Carnegie Mellon | UNC Alumnus | Aspiring Neurosurgeon |

LinkedIn

Location

About the Team

Team Distribution

  • Other Specialties38%
  • Sales & Business Development29%
  • Engineering14%
  • Leadership10%
  • Operations5%

Where the Team Studied

  1. 1.Stanford University
  2. 2.University of California, Berkeley
  3. 3.Cornell University
  4. 4.University of Chicago
  5. 5.Carnegie Mellon University

Team Worked At

  • OpenAI
  • ElevenLabs
  • Scale AI
  • Google
  • Microsoft

Team Composition

21 people
  • Entrepreneurship6 senior6
  • Engineering2 senior3
  • Marketing1 senior2
  • Arts and Design1 senior1
  • Healthcare Services1
  • Product Management1
  • Research1

Funding History

EquityNov 2025

$4.5M

raised

Voice keyboard startup Willow raised a $4.5 M round from Box Group, Y Combinator, Burst Capital, and prominent angel investors.

Y CombinatorBurst CapitalBoxGroup

Life at Willow

Frequently asked questions

Companies similar to Willow

Arga Labs

Arga Labs provides isolated sandbox environments equipped with API twins of third-party services, enabling developers and organizations to safely test and train AI agents without risking their production systems. By offering a controlled testing ground that mirrors real-world APIs, the company allows teams to experiment with AI implementations, validate workflows, and refine agent behavior in a risk-free setting. This approach addresses a critical need in AI development, where testing in live environments can introduce costly errors or security vulnerabilities.

AI/ML1-10
Avallon AI

Avallon creates AI agents that make claims operations teams an order of magnitude more efficient. The company is composed of engineers and operators with deep industry experience whose backgrounds span top institutions like Cornell, MIT, and HSG and whose work includes published research in NLP. Avallon has scaled technology in complex, traditional industries and built products trusted by Fortune 500 companies. The company grew revenue 10x in three months during Y Combinator and is backed by top investors including YC, Frontline Ventures, 1984, and Booom VC as it scales rapidly.

AI/ML1-10
Bild AI

The company aims to make building affordable by leveraging AI to analyze blueprints. It focuses on building computer vision object detection models and coordinating these models, with an emphasis on ML and algorithm development. The company states it prioritizes the intelligence side (ML and algorithms) over the application side. Backed by investors who have funded PlanGrid, Dropbox, and Airbnb, it has strong backing. It is part of Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch (YCW25).

AI/ML1-10