PHILADELPHIA – In March 2026, Singaporeans Jamie Yau and Kazel Koh learnt that their start-up, Collar AI, was among the 1 per cent accepted into Y Combinator (YC), one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after start-up accelerators.

Start-ups from anywhere in the world can apply to YC, often called the Harvard for tech founders, which receives around 10,000 applications every quarter. 

Only about 1 per cent are accepted – less than actual Harvard’s 4 per cent.

It was their second attempt, and being accepted has unlocked access to seed capital of US$500,000 (S$641,000), three months of business growth mentorship and – perhaps most importantly – the kind of attention from investors that would normally take years to attract. 

“We’ve been told that makes us two of the youngest Singaporeans ever to get in,” said Yau, 22, in an interview from San Francisco where she arrived recently to begin YC’s three-month programme. 

“Neither of us look like the founders who usually end up at YC,” she added.

“We both grew up in middle-class families, attended neighbourhood schools, and took the polytechnic diploma route, not the junior college or overseas university route,” she said.

Yau’s father works in the Singapore Navy while Koh’s father has a small construction business. 

She graduated from North Vista Secondary before enrolling for a diploma in business administration at the Singapore Polytechnic, where she is currently in her third year. She is also pursuing a degree in integrative studies at the Singapore Management University. 

Koh, 21, will begin classes in cognitive science and economics at the University of Michigan in 2026 after completing his diploma in information technology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The alumnus of Nan Hua High School received GIC and Public Service Commission engineering undergraduate scholarships and was a SoftBank research scholar.