ISN Team26 Sep 2026
16:34IST
New Update
AI coding startup ByteAsk has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, Entrepreneur First and angel investors, as it looks to develop AI tools for engineers working with C and C++.
The San Francisco-based startup plans to use the funding to expand its engineering and research teams, invest in GPU compute and training data, and develop its product and infrastructure.
It also plans to build enterprise-grade security, privacy and on-premises infrastructure for customers operating in sensitive industries.
Founded in 2026 by IIT Delhi computer science graduates Anirudha Kulkarni and Pratyush Saini, ByteAsk is developing an AI coding agent designed specifically for C and C++ development.
The startup is part of Y Combinator’s Fall 2026 batch.
Focusing on C and C++
ByteAsk is targeting engineers working with C and C++ in industries including defence, aerospace, robotics, high-frequency trading, automotive, embedded systems and semiconductors.
Its founders argue that existing AI coding agents do not perform as effectively on difficult C and C++ tasks as they do on some other programming languages.
The startup is focusing on debugging, performance and memory optimisation, grounding and verification, rather than concentrating only on generating code.
Kulkarni previously worked with low-latency C++ systems at Optiver and Quantbox, while Saini worked on AI systems at ThirdAI and later at AI security startup Simbian.
Kulkarni said his own experience working with low-latency software highlighted the amount of engineering time that could be spent identifying problems and improving performance.
“Usually 60 per cent of my time goes into debugging and performance optimization,” he said.
ByteAsk said its coding agent works with the tools already used by C and C++ engineers. Its product can edit code and use compilers, debuggers, sanitizers and tests to check changes before presenting them to a developer for review.
According to the startup, it can be used through a terminal and is designed to work with existing development toolchains.
Testing AI-generated changes
A central part of ByteAsk’s approach is to make coding agents verify their work rather than relying only on the output generated by an AI model.
“C and C++ power a huge amount of the world’s critical infrastructure, but the gains we’ve seen from AI coding tools have not translated equally well to these environments,” Saini said. “We wanted to work on a problem where reliability, verification and context matter as much as generation.”
ByteAsk said engineers were using its product about six times more intensively each day than a comparable open-n week
It plans to initially focus on large companies in high-frequency trading, automotive and embedded systems before expanding into other markets.
From legal AI to coding agents
ByteAsk is the second startup founded by Kulkarni and Saini.
The pair previously founded LawSutra AI, a legal AI startup that was acquired by online legal research company Manupatra.
Their work on LawSutra has influenced how they are approaching the development of ByteAsk, particularly around providing AI systems with relevant context and mechanisms for checking their output.
Before ByteAsk, Kulkarni worked at Quantbox and Optiver. ByteAsk’s official team page says he worked on C++ systems and low-latency engineering.
Saini previously worked at ThirdAI, where he worked on AI infrastructure, and at Simbian, where he helped develop AI security agents.
Both founders studied computer science at IIT Delhi.
Developing a C++-focused model
ByteAsk is also developing a specialised post-training approach for C++.
The startup plans to release a language model specifically post-trained for C++ within the next six to eight months as part of its efforts to improve AI performance on more complex tasks involving the language.
Alongside its model development, ByteAsk is building infrastructure for enterprise deployments, including on-premises use.
Y Combinator’s company directory describes ByteAsk as an AI coding agent for C and C++ that builds, debugs and tests changes using a developer’s toolchain. It also said the product can run fully on-premises.
The latest funding will support ByteAsk as it expands its engineering and research work and develops its coding agent for companies using C and C++ in performance-sensitive software systems.
FundingAngel InvestorsAIY CombinatorCoding
