After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed

23/05/2025

After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed | TechCrunch

===============
After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed | TechCrunch

===============
[Skip to content](https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/after-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed/#wp–skip-link–target)

[![Image 1](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tc-lockup.svg)TechCrunch Desktop Logo](https://techcrunch.com/)[![Image 2](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tc-logo-mobile.svg)TechCrunch Mobile Logo](https://techcrunch.com/)

* [Latest](https://techcrunch.com/latest/)
* [Startups](https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/)
* [Venture](https://techcrunch.com/category/venture/)
* [Apple](https://techcrunch.com/tag/apple/)
* [Security](https://techcrunch.com/category/security/)
* [AI](https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)
* [Apps](https://techcrunch.com/category/apps/)
* [Google I/O 2025](https://techcrunch.com/storyline/google-i-o-2025-live-coverage-gemini-android-16-updates-and-more/)

* [Events](https://techcrunch.com/events/)
* [Podcasts](https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/)
* [Newsletters](https://techcrunch.com/newsletters/)

Submit

Site Search Toggle

Mega Menu Toggle

### Topics

[Latest](https://techcrunch.com/latest/)

[AI](https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/)

[Amazon](https://techcrunch.com/tag/amazon/)

[Apps](https://techcrunch.com/category/apps/)

[Biotech & Health](https://techcrunch.com/category/biotech-health/)

[Climate](https://techcrunch.com/category/climate/)

[Cloud Computing](https://techcrunch.com/tag/cloud-computing/)

[Commerce](https://techcrunch.com/category/commerce/)

[Crypto](https://techcrunch.com/category/cryptocurrency/)

[Enterprise](https://techcrunch.com/category/enterprise/)

[EVs](https://techcrunch.com/tag/evs/)

[Fintech](https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/)

[Fundraising](https://techcrunch.com/category/fundraising/)

[Gadgets](https://techcrunch.com/category/gadgets/)

[Gaming](https://techcrunch.com/category/gaming/)

[Google](https://techcrunch.com/tag/google/)

[Government & Policy](https://techcrunch.com/category/government-policy/)

[Hardware](https://techcrunch.com/category/hardware/)

[Instagram](https://techcrunch.com/tag/instagram/)

[Layoffs](https://techcrunch.com/tag/layoffs/)

[Media & Entertainment](https://techcrunch.com/category/media-entertainment/)

[Meta](https://techcrunch.com/tag/meta/)

[Microsoft](https://techcrunch.com/tag/microsoft/)

[Privacy](https://techcrunch.com/category/privacy/)

[Robotics](https://techcrunch.com/category/robotics/)

[Security](https://techcrunch.com/category/security/)

[Social](https://techcrunch.com/category/social/)

[Space](https://techcrunch.com/category/space/)

[Startups](https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/)

[TikTok](https://techcrunch.com/tag/tiktok/)

[Transportation](https://techcrunch.com/category/transportation/)

[Venture](https://techcrunch.com/category/venture/)

### More from TechCrunch

[Events](https://techcrunch.com/events/)

[Startup Battlefield](https://techcrunch.com/startup-battlefield/)

[StrictlyVC](https://strictlyvc.com/)

[Newsletters](https://techcrunch.com/newsletters/)

[Podcasts](https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/)

[Videos](https://techcrunch.com/video/)

[Partner Content](https://techcrunch.com/sponsored/)

[TechCrunch Brand Studio](https://techcrunch.com/brand-studio/)

[Crunchboard](https://www.crunchboard.com/)

[Contact Us](https://techcrunch.com/contact-us/)

![Image 3: Man looking at big data represented by binary code and data symbols like graphs.](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GettyImages-1206978865.jpg?w=1024)

**Image Credits:**Ariya Sontrapornpol / Getty Images

[Startups](https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/)

[](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fafter-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed%2F)[](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fafter-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed%2F&text=After+causing+outrage+on+the+first+day+of+Y+Combinator%2C+AI+code+editor+PearAI+lands+%241M+seed&via=techcrunch)[](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fafter-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed%2F&title=After+causing+outrage+on+the+first+day+of+Y+Combinator%2C+AI+code+editor+PearAI+lands+%241M+seed&summary=On+the+first+day+of+Y+Combinator+the+founders+of+PearAI+got+%E2%80%9Ccancelled.%22+They+used+the+hate+to+launch+a+new+product%2C+raise+%241+million.&mini=1&source=TechCrunch)[](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fafter-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed%2F&title=After+causing+outrage+on+the+first+day+of+Y+Combinator%2C+AI+code+editor+PearAI+lands+%241M+seed)[](mailto:?subject=After+causing+outrage+on+the+first+day+of+Y+Combinator%2C+AI+code+editor+PearAI+lands+%241M+seed&body=Article%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fafter-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed%2F)[](https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/after-causing-outrage-on-the-first-day-of-y-combinator-ai-code-editor-pearai-lands-1m-seed/)

After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed
============================================================================================

[Julie Bort](https://techcrunch.com/author/julie-bort/)

1:34 PM PST · December 20, 2024

On the first day of Y Combinator’s winter 2024 session — right after orientation and a photo in front of the YC sign — the founders of PearAI got “canceled,” as founder Nang Ang described it to TechCrunch,[receiving an outpouring of online hate](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/y-combinator-is-being-criticized-after-it-backed-an-ai-startup-that-admits-it-basically-cloned-another-ai-startup/).

But they survived and graduated the YC’s winter 2024 cohort earlier this month with a modified idea and a new initial product. Now they’ve also made their goal of $1 million in seed funding, Ang tells TechCrunch, raising a total of $1.25 million, including [YC’s standard deal](https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/13/has-y-combinators-new-deal-changed-the-early-stage-investing-game/) of $375,000.

To recap: On that Saturday in September, Ang and his co-founder, Duke Pan, released a proof-of-concept, minimal viable product version of their AI code editor on GitHub. They launched with a chest-pounding tweet and [an influencer-style YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18cHBU05zK0) (the founders are YouTubers).

Within hours, someone accused their project of basically being a copy of another open source code editor, Continue, with very few changes. (The PairAI founders were [even accused](https://x.com/DerekSmartymans/status/1844040075371565357) of doing a mass search-and-replace to remove Continue’s name and add theirs in.)Worse than that, they released their product under a funky, made-up license written with [ChatGPT](https://x.com/ns123abc/status/1840481220188111076/photo/1). The surest way to piss off the open source community is to mess with licensing.

“We definitely did have a lot of mistakes with licensing,” Ang told TechCrunch, insisting that licensing has since been fixed.

Pan’s [bravado tweet](https://x.com/CodeFryingPan/status/1840203597478539477) discussing how he quit his high-paying Coinbase job to do this startup and boasting that the product was “already better than Copilot” further fanned the outrage.Continue — another YC company — [got involved to criticize](https://twitter.com/continuedev/status/1840601490827989368) them, while YC CEO Garry Tan [defended them.](https://x.com/garrytan/status/1840490867280498873)

By Sunday, the young founders had[apologized](https://x.com/CodeFryingPan/status/1840831339337302204), moved to a standard open source license, and better documented the open source work that underpinned theirs, among other concessions.

Techcrunch event

### Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI

#### Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking.

### Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI

#### Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last.

Berkeley, CA|June 5

[REGISTER NOW](https://techcrunch.com/events/tc-sessions-ai/?promo=tc_inline_exhibit&utm_campaign=tcsessionsai2025&utm_content=exhibit&utm_medium=ad&utm_source=tc)

But they were also left with the obvious feedback that there may not be room for yet another code editor.“We love coding, and we want to see it be done better,” Ang said.

So they took lemons and made AI coding lemonade, using the feedback in the hate to modify their product idea. Instead of an editor itself, they are now building a “framework” that will curate AI coding tools, allowing programmers to use multiple tools. In the back end, it allows the tools to communicate “and actually work well together,” Ang said. The front end will standardize the user interface so that it “seems like I’m using one product instead of 10,” he said. The tool will integrate with many AI coding tools, including Continue.

While there are some public [skeptics](https://x.com/garyfung/status/1856754392164413849), PearAI has also [gotten kudos](https://x.com/ycombinator/status/1856441845880107408) — a starkly different experience to the last time it launched.

Seed round investors include Goodwater Capital, Multimodal Ventures, Orange Fund, Exitfund, and some unnamed angel investors, Ang says.

Topics

[AI coding tools](https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai-coding-tools/), [Exclusive](https://techcrunch.com/tag/exclusive/), [Startups](https://techcrunch.com/category/startups/), [Y Combinator](https://techcrunch.com/tag/y-combinator/)

![Image 4: Julie Bort](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c547babb262b4c91487b1052aac029b1?s=150&d=blank&r=g)

Julie Bort

Venture Editor

[](https://twitter.com/julie188)

[View Bio](https://techcrunch.com/author/julie-bort/)

![Image 5: Event Logo](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/techcrunch-sessions-ai-small-logo.jpg)

June 5, 2025

Berkeley, California

LIMITED TIME: Save $300+ on your ticket, plus an additional 50% on a second for a full immersive day of AI! Hear from AI pioneers from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, and more on the main stage and in breakouts, and network like never before.

[REGISTER NOW](https://techcrunch.com/events/tc-sessions-ai/?utm_source=tc&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=tcsessionsai2025&utm_content=earlybirdbogo&promo=tceventssidebar_ebbogo&display=)

Most Popular
————

*
### [ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/chatgpt-everything-to-know-about-the-ai-chatbot/)

* [Kyle Wiggers](https://techcrunch.com/author/kyle-wiggers/)
* [Cody Corrall](https://techcrunch.com/author/cody-corrall/)
* [Alyssa Stringer](https://techcrunch.com/author/alyssa-stringer/)
* [Kate Park](https://techcrunch.com/author/kate-park/)

*
### [California prepares to sue feds after Senate revokes the state’s EV rule](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/california-prepares-to-sue-feds-after-senate-revokes-the-states-ev-rule/)

* [Tim De Chant](https://techcrunch.com/author/tim-de-chant/)

*
### [At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, Artemis Seaford and Ion Stoica confront the ethical crisis — when AI crosses the line](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/when-ai-crosses-the-line-artemis-seaford-and-ion-stoica-confront-the-ethical-crisis-at-techcrunch-sessions-ai/)

* [TechCrunch Events](https://techcrunch.com/author/techcrunch-events/)

*
### [X continues to suffer bugs following Thursday outage](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/x-continues-to-suffer-bugs-following-thursday-outage/)

* [Kyle Wiggers](https://techcrunch.com/author/kyle-wiggers/)

*
### [Founders First: Iliana Quinonez of Google Cloud on AI agents, infrastructure, and democratization at TechCrunch Sessions: AI](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/founders-first-iliana-quinonez-of-google-cloud-on-ai-agents-infrastructure-and-democratization-at-techcrunch-sessions-ai/)

* [TechCrunch Events](https://techcrunch.com/author/techcrunch-events/)

*
### [Tick tock: Just 3 days left to save up to $900 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 pass](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/tick-tock-just-3-days-left-to-save-up-to-900-on-your-techcrunch-disrupt-2025-pass/)

* [TechCrunch Events](https://techcrunch.com/author/techcrunch-events/)

*
### [Apple could launch AI-powered smart glasses in 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/23/apple-could-launch-ai-powered-smart-glasses-in-2026/)

* [Dominic-Madori Davis](https://techcrunch.com/author/dominic-madori-davis/)

Loading the next article

Error loading the next article

[![Image 6: TechCrunch Logo](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/themes/tc-24/dist/svg/tc-logo.svg)](https://techcrunch.com/)
* [X](https://twitter.com/techcrunch)
* [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/techcrunch)
* [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/techcrunch)
* [Instagram](https://instagram.com/techcrunch)
* [youTube](https://www.youtube.com/user/techcrunch)
* [Mastodon](https://mstdn.social/@TechCrunch)
* [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@techcrunch)
* [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/techcrunch.com)

* [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/)
* [Staff](https://techcrunch.com/about-techcrunch/)
* [Contact Us](https://techcrunch.com/contact-us/)
* [Advertise](https://techcrunch.com/advertise/)
* [Crunchboard Jobs](https://www.crunchboard.com/)
* [Site Map](https://techcrunch.com/site-map/)

* [Terms of Service](https://techcrunch.com/terms-of-service/)
* [Privacy Policy](https://techcrunch.com/privacy-policy/)
* [RSS Terms of Use](https://techcrunch.com/rss-terms-of-use/)
* [Code of Conduct](https://techcrunch.com/code-of-conduct/)

* [Anthropic](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/anthropic-suggests-tweaks-to-proposed-u-s-ai-chip-export-controls/)
* [OpenAI](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/29/openai-explains-why-chatgpt-became-too-sycophantic/)
* [Duolingo](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/duolingo-launches-148-courses-created-with-ai-after-sharing-plans-to-replace-contractors-with-ai/)
* [Wikipedia](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/30/__trashed-4/)
* [Hugging Face](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/28/hugging-face-releases-a-3d-printed-robotic-arm-starting-at-100/)
* [Tech Layoffs](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/28/tech-layoffs-2024-list/)
* [ChatGPT](https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/28/chatgpt-everything-to-know-about-the-ai-chatbot/)

![Image 7](https://pixel.wp.com/g.gif?v=ext&blog=136296444&post=2935741&tz=-7&srv=techcrunch.com&hp=vip&j=1%3A14.6&host=techcrunch.com&ref=&fcp=0&rand=0.27098422373960884)

Some areas of this page may shift around if you resize the browser window. Be sure to check heading and document order.

AI Track Hub

AI Track Hub

After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seed

You May Also Like

AI-coding startup Codeium in talks to raise at an almost $3B valuation, sources say

Report: AI coding assistants aren’t a panacea

Apple and Anthropic reportedly partner to build an AI coding platform