Saffron was founded by Robert Chondro, Kazuma Choji, Jerry Yao in 2025.

Who are Saffron's investors?

Saffron's investors include Y Combinator, Blast.Club, Dragonfly.

Where is Saffron headquartered?

Saffron is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Saffron

YC X26

San Francisco, US · Founded 2025 · 3 employees · 3 known investors

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Saffron provides technical assessments for engineering hiring that evaluate how candidates work with AI coding tools. The platform captures and analyzes candidate interactions with code, AI prompts, and decisions to measure engineering competency in modern workflows.

Also known as Saffron AI, Inc. · Saffron AI

AI & Machine Learning Developer Tools Enterprise Software HR Tech SaaS Human ResourcesUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (X26)

Saffron was founded in 2025 by Robert Chondro, Kazuma Choji, and Jerry Yao.

Robert Chondro Co-Founder, CEORobert Chondro studied mathematics and computer science at MIT. He is building AI-powered technical assessment tools for software engineer hiring.

Kazuma Choji Founder, Chief Technology Officer2026–2026Kazuma Choji studied computer science and mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and published research at machine learning venues including NeurIPS, ICML, and ICCV. He is now building software to evaluate software engineer productivity with AI.

Jerry Yao Co-Founder2025–2026Jerry Yao studied computer science and mathematics at Stanford. He is building AI-native technical assessments.

Investors · 3

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · a partner's Signal profile · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Blast.Clubreported$5.5M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

DragonflyreportedNew York · $3M – $30M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

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Companies working in the same space as Saffron.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure

Saffron AI, Inc.

In the news

Saffron: Find Your Next 10x Engineerycombinator.com · Apr 2026

Frequently asked questions

What does Saffron do?: Saffron provides technical assessments for engineering hiring that evaluate how candidates work with AI coding tools. The platform captures and analyzes candidate interactions with code, AI prompts, and decisions to measure engineering competency in modern workflows.
Who founded Saffron?: Saffron was founded by Robert Chondro, Kazuma Choji, Jerry Yao in 2025.
Who are Saffron's investors?: Saffron's investors include Y Combinator, Blast.Club, Dragonfly.
Where is Saffron headquartered?: Saffron is headquartered in San Francisco, US.