Hera bets AI turns 5-hour motion-design jobs into 5 minutes; top-traffic startup of YC S25

Hera is an AI motion designer that turns a 5-hour After Effects job into a 5-minute task: describe an animation in plain English and it generates editable, code-based motion graphics, with on-canvas refinement and brand kits. The founders' research, from 130 video teams, was that 95% of motion-design time is manual button clicking, not creative work.

Peter Tribelhorn, a WHU graduate, had built YouTube channels with 30M+ subscribers at Lunar X and paid motion designers thousands of dollars weekly; Chia-Lun Wu had built Vyond Studio, a drag-and-drop editor used by 20,000 businesses. They applied to Y Combinator four times and were rejected three times, with partners demanding users, paying users and retention before acceptance into the S25 batch.

Launched in May 2025, Hera got 3,000 users creating 15,000+ animations in its first week and passed 100,000 waitlist signups within two months. WHU reported it became the most-visited startup in YC's S25 cohort, with roughly 200,000 monthly web visits, 200,000+ animations created and 20,000+ new users per week within weeks of launch. As of 2026-09-02 the company is still active and running.