Tech:NYC Digest: January 30

Tech:NYC Digest: January 30

January 30, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Monday, January 30, 2023

In today’s digest, NYC’s plan to make mental health universal, how the city wants to expand the “public realm,” and we talk to five New York founders hyper-focused on building companies to help other founders succeed.

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  • Mayor Eric Adams announced all NYC high school students will have access to mental health support through telehealth programs, an initiative he says will be the largest student wellbeing program in the country. (Chalkbeat)

  • Nearly three-quarters of New Yorkers would like to see recycling programs expanded to include more container types, and a slim majority think the per-container deposit should increase from 5 cents to 10 cents. (Times Union)

  • Lastly, did you notice the latest scandal in NYC is all about beef (or we should probably say cheesesteak) with … the Empire State Building? 

In other reading:

  • Your next Contribution to Public Health: Airplane Toilets Could Catch the Next COVID Variant (The Atlantic)

  • The new park opening under the Manhattan part of the Brooklyn Bridge (Time Out New York)

  • The 5 Dishes to Try at Williamsburg’s New Food Hall (Eater NY)

Building a new startup is hard. Building a new startup amid forecasts of an economic downturn is even harder. But we know some startups that can help. 

What we’re watching: A lot of doomsday market predictions for 2023.

  • Tech:NYC has already fielded a wave of questions from founders about how other startups like theirs were navigating the uncertainties. (And hot tip: our friends at Work-Bench put together a running list of nearly 50 enterprise playbooks to help you manage the most challenging aspects of sales, fundraising, and other growth functions). 

Here’s our silver lining: We haven’t seen a single inquiry that couldn’t be solved by a connection to another NYC founder building the software solution they needed.

  • In an uncertain market, startups are (rightfully) looking for every opportunity to minimize spend, extend runway, and set themselves up for long-term growth.

For the first edition of our Companies to Watch series in 2023, we talked with five NYC founders building the companies to make sure other companies thrive, regardless of the market climate:

  • Gynger: a non-dilutive financing platform for software and infrastructure needs;

  • Pasito: an insurtech saving both employees and companies money on healthcare and benefits;

  • Dandi: an analytics platform for advancing workplace DEI objectives;

  • Ethena: a compliance training platform for modern companies;

  • LexCheck: an AI-powered platform to accelerate legal contract negotiations and reviews.

  • Elaborate, a NYC-based platform that helps doctors communicate and contextualize lab results to patients, raised $10 million in seed funding. Tusk Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Founder Collective, Company Ventures, Bling Ventures, and Arkitekt Ventures. (Fast Company)

  • Paradigm, a NYC-based clinical trial tech platform, raised $203 million in Series A funding. ARCH Venture Partners and General Catalyst co-led the round and were joined by F-Prime Capital, GV, LUX Capital, Mubadala Capital, Magnetic Ventures, and American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge fund. (FinSMEs)

  • Pearl Health, a NYC-based primary care platform for physicians, raised $75 million in Series B funding. Andreessen Horowitz and Viking Global Investors co-led the round and were joined by AlleyCorp and SV Angel. (Newswire)

  • Tranch, a NYC and London-based BNPL platform for SaaS providers, raised $100 million in seed equity and debt funding. Soma Capital and FoundersX led the round and was joined by Clear Haven Capital Management. (Businesswire)

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