HERA

YC company profile

We make sure every factory in the world builds without mistakes.

At Hera, we build tools that help heavy engineering teams bring products to market up to 20× faster. Today, we work with manufacturers of data center ancillary equipment, renewable energy systems, robotics, heat exchangers, power plants and pressure vessels.

• YC batch: Summer 2026
• Founded: 2026
• Team size: 2
• Location: San Francisco
• Country: US
• Status: Active
• Industry: Industrials
• Stage: Early
• Tags: B2B, Design, Design Tools, Manufacturing, Industrial
• YC partner: Diana Hu

Founders

Meera Patel — Founder/CEO

CEO of HERA. Previously delivered projects for Pfizer and TE Connectivity, and built factory automation systems used by millions. ML research and Industrial Engineering at UW.

LinkedIn · X

Noelle So — Founder/CTO

Co-founder of HERA. Built water infrastructure at 19 serving companies behind 6% of Philippine GDP. Previously developed software for engineering facilities at TE Connectivity & Wyze Labs. Former machine learning and industrial engineering researcher at UW.

LinkedIn · X

What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?

American manufacturers lose an estimated $285,000 annually to poor quality for every $10 million in revenue. At the same time, the industry is losing the engineers who know how to prevent those losses. Nearly 4 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled by 2033 as experienced workers retire, and almost half are expected to go unfilled. Much of the expertise required to review complex engineering drawings exists only in the heads of senior engineers who are leaving the workforce.

We're both engineers who grew up watching this firsthand. After more than 200 conversations with manufacturing engineers, quality engineers and machinists, we're building software that captures that expertise by automatically reviewing engineering drawings against ASME standards and company-specific rules before they ever reach the shop floor.

What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?

We're building the largest repository of engineering judgment in the world. We tailor each company's checks to their own standards, the kind usually mastered by only a handful of senior engineers. We turn that knowledge into software every plant can use the same week.

With success, the physical things the world depends on get built 10x faster, and a retiring generation's expertise is never lost.

Source: Y Combinator · Retrieved 2026-11-02. Company information is self-reported on YC.