Tech:NYC Digest: April 24

Tech:NYC Digest: April 24

April 24, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Monday, April 24, 2023

In today’s digest, NYC’s new living laboratory for climate innovation is just a ferry ride away, the 300 city blocks set to become car-free this summer, and five NYC founders weigh in on how to accelerate the city’s status as a global hub for climate tech.

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  • Governors Island, the 172-acre island off Lower Manhattan accessible only by ferry, will become the site of a $700 million “living laboratory” for solutions addressing the climate crisis. (New York Times)

    • A consortium of universities and tech companies like IBM will create the campus to expand the city’s climate research and train New Yorkers for jobs in the green economy.

  • The NYC subway system surpassed 4 million paid riders in a single day last Thursday for the first time since March 2020. That total remains below the pre-pandemic weekday average of 5.5 million rides. (Bloomberg)

  • The Open Streets program will officially return this summer, spanning nearly 300 city blocks across all five boroughs. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • This is What the End of the MetroCard Machine Looks Like (Curbed)

  • ‘In the very, very beginning, it was about 3 feet of garbage’: How NYC’s first community garden got started (Gothamist)

  • Roll the Dice, Save Gotham from Climate Catastrophe! (New York Times)

For Earth Day this past weekend, we caught up with five NYC founders building in the climate tech space. We wanted to ask them what it was like to bring a sustainability-focused lens to some of NYC’s otherwise leading industries — food, healthcare, real estate, and more.

Why it matters: The risk of climate change is only becoming more urgent, and its impacts are being felt across all types of industries — including tech.

New York itself is likewise stepping up: Last week, NYC released an updated PlaNYC agenda to set goalposts for building the city’s green economy — including all the jobs it will create. 

  • And today, city officials announced Governors Island will become the city’s first “living laboratory” for climate innovation.

  • Other initiatives from the Brooklyn Navy Yard are also underway to provide climate tech companies easy, streamlined environments to test their prototypes in real-world settings.

NYC is a unique hotbed of both climate challenges and interventions: And that’s why it has quickly become a burgeoning hub for climate tech. As we close out Earth Month, meet this month’s Companies to Watch:

  • Cabinet Health: A sustainable healthcare company providing refillable and compostable medicine packaging to combat the plastic waste crisis.

  • DeliverZero: A reusable packaging solution that works with restaurants and delivery platforms to eliminate waste from takeout and delivery containers.

  • Renovate Robotics: A hardware startup automating the installation of shingles and solar panels on roofs.

  • Re-Nuble: An agtech startup converting food waste and crop residue into technologies for growers in 100% closed loop agricultural systems.

  • Phood: A food waste prevention startup using computer vision to automate surplus food tracking for retail grocers and large-scale food operations.

  • CurbWaste, a NYC-based vertical SaaS provider for the waste management industry, raised $4 million in seed extension funding. TTV Capital led the round and was joined by B Capital Group and Mucker Capital.

  • Fractal, a New York-based digital asset clearing and settlement startup, raised $6 million in new funding. Participating investors include QCP Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Archetype, Blizzard, and CMT Digital.

  • SeatGeek, a NYC-based online ticketing marketplace, confidentially filed for its IPO.

  • Vesey Ventures, a NYC-based VC firm focused on early-stage fintech startups, raised $78 million for its debut fund.

  • April 27: Virtual: Mock Term Sheet Negotiation, with Culina Health co-founders Vanessa Rissetto and Steven Kuyan, Goodwin partner Jesse Nevarez, Graham & Walker CEO Leslie Feinzaig, and others. Hosted by the NYU Tandon Data Future Lab. Register here.

  • May 3: In-person: How to Validate Your MVP, with Interplay partner Phuong Ireland, Work-Bench investor Daniel Chesley, and Innovatemap CEO Mike Reynolds. Hosted by Innovatemap. Register here.

  • May 3: In-person: The State of AI in NYC, with Bloomberg head of ML Gideon Mann, Every & Lex CEO Dan Shipper, and Costanoa Ventures investor Madison Hawkinson. Hosted by New York AI and Company Ventures. Register here.

  • May 10: In-person: Climate Change: Politics, Policy, and Opportunity in New York, with Spring Street Climate Fund president John Raskin. Hosted by Betaworks. Register here.

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