Fundraising Fox

AthenaHQ

YC W25

San Francisco, US · Founded 2025 · 12 employees · Hiring · 5 known investors

AthenaHQ builds AI-powered search technology for e-commerce and digital marketing. The company is led by former executives from Google Search, DeepMind, and ServiceNow.

Also known as NewsPod · Otter Health

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W25)

AthenaHQ was founded in 2025 by Andrew Yan and Alan Yao.

AYAndrew Yan
Andrew Yanin𝕏Co-Founder, CEOHe previously worked at Google Search, DeepMind, and the U.S. Army Laboratory, and holds a degree from Columbia University.
AYAlan Yao
Alan Yaoin𝕏Co-Founder, CTO/CMOAlan Yao is co-founder and CTO of AthenaHQ, with a background in jazz performance.

Investors · 5

Competitors · 7

by search overlap
SEMrush85 shared keywordsSemrush provides competitive intelligence, SEO, keyword research, and content generation tools for growth marketers and small teams to improve visibility and optimize their acquisition funnel across Google and AI search.
Writesonic78 shared keywordsWritesonic is a platform for growth teams to monitor brand visibility across AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) and take automated action through content creation, citation outreach, and technical fixes to improve AI search visibility and pipeline impact.
SE Ranking58 shared keywordsSE Ranking is an AI-powered SEO platform for agencies and in-house SEO teams, offering rank tracking, keyword and backlink research, competitor analysis, and AI search visibility monitoring across engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. It also provides local marketing tools, white-label reporting, lead generation, and API/integration access for client management and workflow automation.
Profound55 shared keywordsProfound provides tools for PR and brand teams to monitor and influence how their brands appear in AI answer engines like ChatGPT, tracking brand sentiment and citations across domains. It surfaces earned media opportunities and supports generative engine optimization to improve brand visibility in AI-generated responses.
Zapier53 shared keywordsZapier provides a platform for connecting AI models and agents to workflows and business applications, enabling teams to automate tasks across over 9,000 apps without coding. The platform serves enterprises, operations teams, and businesses of all sizes looking to deploy AI-driven automation for lead capture, customer support, employee onboarding, and other business processes.
Eesel50 shared keywordseesel AI builds AI "teammates" that connect to a company's tools and perform work tasks under human supervision, with autonomy increasing over time. The product targets support and enterprise teams and uses usage-based pricing tied to work completed.
Whatagraph45 shared keywordsWhatagraph is a marketing intelligence platform that uses AI to connect, clean, organize, and visualize marketing data and generate insights and reports. It serves marketing agencies and marketing professionals looking to consolidate reporting across multiple tools.

Companies competing with AthenaHQ for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

In the news

Frequently asked questions

What does AthenaHQ do?
AthenaHQ builds AI-powered search technology for e-commerce and digital marketing. The company is led by former executives from Google Search, DeepMind, and ServiceNow.
Who founded AthenaHQ?
AthenaHQ was founded by Andrew Yan, Alan Yao in 2025.
Who are AthenaHQ's investors?
AthenaHQ's investors include FundersClub, Y Combinator, Amino Capital, FCVC, Red Bike Capital.
Where is AthenaHQ headquartered?
AthenaHQ is headquartered in San Francisco, US.