Y Combinator Universe published more than a hundred blog posts in 2013.   Topics covered everything from relationship apps for couples to in-memory relational databases.  I wrote about fashion startups and wearable devices.  The acquisition of a dozen companies were mentioned.  And Demo Day for two new batches were detailed, YC W13 and YC S13.  Here’s a few highlights from 2013.

Hardware Renaissance

Paul Graham wrote an essay a year ago about the hardware renaissance and growing number of new hardware startups.  Those companies really began to bear fruit in 2013.  Wearables are only a few new types of hardware.  Airware makes flight control systems for commercial drones.  Estimote Bluetooth LE sensors started developing early for Apple’s iOS 7 iBeacon technology and won an award for Best Hardware Startup.

Acquisitions

Parse was acquired by Facebook and Luma.io through Facebook’s Instagram subsidiary.  Bump Technologies and Flutter were acquired by Google.  Embark and Cue were bought by Apple.  Xobni went to Yahoo.  Crocodoc was purchased by Box.

Y Combinator Itself

37 YC Startups might now be valued at $40m or more.  Five new partners joined Y Combinator.  Khosla Ventures replaced Yuri Milner’s role in YC VC.  Paul Graham made some offensive comments about foreigners with accents.  New startups are still getting the same cash and terms since 2005.  And Hacker News turned six years old.

Looking Ahead

Startups like Watsi and Soylent-maker Rosa Labs show a trend by Y Combinator towards funding companies that are less technical and solve more fundamental problems.  Y Combinator is also now making charitable contributions to non-profit startups.  YC W14 begins in January.  I look forward all the exciting new startups in the new year.