Ark
DefunctYC W12San Francisco, US Β· 11 employees Β· 2 known investors
Ark is a search engine that indexes social network profiles to help users find people, including classmates, professional contacts, and acquaintances.
Also known as Ark.com
Founders & leadershipΒ· Y Combinator alumni (W12)
Investors Β· 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Ark operated ark.com, a search engine for people built on an index of social network profiles. Users could search for new contacts, former classmates, business contacts and friends across the indexed profile data. The company positioned the product as a comprehensive people search engine, describing its mission as organizing the world's social information.
The product was built on what the company described as a modern architecture supporting an index of more than one billion social network profiles. Ark was categorized in the media and social sectors and was based in San Francisco.
Founding story
Before founding Ark, the team had worked at Google, AOL, Symantec, Lithium, Yahoo! Research and Y Combinator.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Ark presented itself as a comprehensive people search engine covering social network profile data.
Technology
A people search index covering more than one billion social network profiles, built on what the company described as a modern search architecture.
Go-to-market
Individuals searching for other people online, including former classmates, business contacts and acquaintances.
Geography
San Francisco, United States.
History
Ark took part in Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch as a San Francisco-based company with a team of 11. Its founders β Jonas Templestein, Yiming Liu and Patrick Riley β are listed as former founders, and Y Combinator records the company's status as inactive. Templestein subsequently worked on Monzo and later Nustom.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 1
launches, deals, and filingsArk was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch, based in San Francisco, with a team size of 11.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- ARK News - ARK - Official Community Forumssurvivetheark.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Ark do?
- Ark was a people search engine that indexed over a billion social network profiles.
- Who founded Ark?
- Ark was founded by Jonas Templestein, Yiming Liu, Patrick Riley.
- Who are Ark's investors?
- Ark's investors include Expansion Venture Capital, Y Combinator.
- Where is Ark headquartered?
- Ark is headquartered in San Francisco, US.