Tech:NYC Digest: July 5

Tech:NYC Digest: July 5

July 05, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Welcome back (and hope you’re staying cool)! In today’s digest, the dash to fund climate tech, public lockers for package delivery, and the pros and cons of a summer ‘workcation.’ 

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  • The city’s Dept. of Transportation will launch a one-year pilot program this summer to place secure, public lockers on sidewalks for sending and receiving packages. (amNewYork)

    • LockerNYC will kick off this summer at 15 to-be-determined sidewalk locations through a partnership between the city and delivery companies such as UPS and DHL.

  • New York City elections officials began releasing preliminary results today from ranked choice voting in last week’s City Council primaries. Here’s what to expect — including how results may change as ballots are tallied. (AP)

  • New progress on the Second Avenue Subway extension into East Harlem: Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the MTA is seeking bids for the construction of the extension to 125th Street and unveiled new conceptual renderings of the proposed stations for the extension. (Patch) 

In other reading:

Tech:NYC has been tracking the swell of climate tech funding in the past year, and in New York, it remains a consistent bright spot: 

What’s new: Investment into sustainability-focused startups has held up better than most other tech sectors in the first half of the year, Crunchbase News reports. Last year was a record-setter for sustainability-focused tech investment:

  • So far in 2023, investors have put just over $17 billion into sustainability-focused companies, according to Crunchbase data. That’s already tracking close to 2021 totals.

One of last month’s largest funding rounds went to a New York climate-focused company: NYC-based CleanCapital raised $500 million for investments in solar projects.

  • Early-stage startups are also attracting a lot of VC interest: Tech:NYC recently spoke with five NYC founders to watch who are applying climate-conscious solutions to everything from healthcare, real estate, food waste, and more.

  • Another early-stage example is NYC-based Fero Labs, which is using artificial intelligence to drive efficiencies and cut emissions from manufacturing processes. The company raised $15 million last month. 

City officials are also picking up on the trend: A challenge by the newly-formed NYC Environmental Tech Lab hopes to help the city manage its water assets.

  • The program, a partnership between the the city Dept. of Environmental Protection and the Partnership for New York City, hopes to build off the success of the Transit Tech Lab to further leverage public-private partnerships to solve major challenges facing the city. 

Our take: The City and State are both focused on drastically cutting carbon emissions. That has created a growing list of ways for startups to work with government officials — and a lot of funding to be deployed. Tech:NYC has been compiling a list of those opportunities — if you think your startup could benefit, let us know!

In other reading:

  • Why companies should worry about the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling (Axios)

  • How Managers Can Make Time for Their Own Development (Harvard Business Review) 

  • The pros and cons of taking a ‘workcation’ (Fast Company)

  • Alfie Health, a NYC-based virtual clinic for patients with obesity, raised $2.1 million in funding. Y Combinator and Nina Capital co-led the round and were joined by Goodwater Capital, Phoenix Investment Club, and other angels.

  • BidSight, a NYC-based commercial real estate software provider, raised $2 million in pre-seed funding. Outsiders Fund led the round and was joined by Y Combinator and a group of angel investors.

  • Cyware, a NYC-based threat intelligence solutions provider, raised $30 million in Series C funding. Ten Eleven Ventures led the round and was joined by Advent International, Zscaler, Emerald Development Managers, Prelude, and Great Road Holdings.

  • July 13: In-person: Supercharging your company with AI, with OpenAI developer advocate Logan Kilpatrick and Primary partner Brian Schechter and principal Tobias Citron. Hosted by SVB. Register here.

  • July 19: In-person: Building a Proptech Startup, with Moved president Caren Maio, Stak Mobility CEO Diallo Powell, a16z partner Sumeet Singh, and Common founder Brad Hargreaves. Hosted by Stacklist. Register here.

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