Tech:NYC Digest: May 3

Tech:NYC Digest: May 3

May 03, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

In today’s digest, the state budget is finally in the books, straphangers win in the MTA vs. Twitter standoff, and a new tech lab launches to protect New York’s waterways.

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  • New York has finally passed its state budget, coming in at a total $229 billion in spending on education, healthcare, transportation, and other areas.

  • As part of the final budget, New York passed a first-in-the-nation law to ban the use of natural gas in an effort to reduce emissions in all new buildings under seven stories beginning in 2026 and all larger buildings in 2029. (Washington Post)

  • NYC will phase out its green borough-based taxis in favor of a new type of licensed for-hire that won’t employ metered trips or allow for street hails. A pilot program testing the transition will focus more exclusively on expanding service for pre-arranged trips. (THE CITY)

  • For those of you who’ve become accustomed to getting your subway service updates from Twitter: good news. Twitter reversed course on charging public agencies nationwide to post real-time updates after the MTA said no way. (AP)

In other reading:

  • Why New York’s Giant Trash Piles May Be an Endangered Species (New York Times)

  • A guide to NYC’s 100 free fitness classes by someone who’s tried them (Gothamist)

  • This is the Most Complicated Dessert in New York (Grub Street)

NYC tap water is world-renowned for its quality and New York Harbor is the cleanest it’s been in 100 years. A new tech lab wants to keep it that way.

What’s new: The Environmental Tech Lab, a new initiative from the city’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Partnership Fund for New York City, will seek out companies with solutions to fortify the city’s water and climate infrastructure.

  • Software that helps more precisely identify where flooding threats occur, air quality monitoring hardware, and tech that can help process wastewater are all examples of the types of tools the DEP wants to attract.

  • Unlike similar programs launched in NYC in recent years for early-stage startups, this one is designed for growth-stage companies that have already demonstrated product market fit.

“Digital technology holds a significant promise for the functions that DEP undertakes,” DEP commissioner Rohit Aggarwala told Crain’s New York. “There's a whole host of other things that we can and should be doing with technology that I don't know if we as an agency have explored as well as we could.” 

In other reading:

  • This Midtown-based tech veteran wants to give ChatGPT a run for its money (Crain’s New York)

  • How leaders can better address proximity bias head-on (Fast Company)

  • How to Gracefully Decline a Job Offer (The Cut)

  • Campus, a NYC-based collegiate education platform, raised $29 million in funding. Participating investors include Bloomberg Beta, Founders Fund, Rethink Education, Reach Capital, Precursor Ventures, and a group of individuals. 

  • Energy Impact Partners, a NYC-based investment firm, raised $111.9 million for a fund focused on diversity in clean energy.

  • Kindbody, a NYC-based provider of women's fertility services, raised $25 million in venture funding from Morgan Health.

  • Kinnos, a Brooklyn-based developer of tech for colorizing disinfectants, raised $15 million in new funding. Participating investors include Pioneer Healthcare Partners, Kapor Center, and Partnership Fund for NYC.

  • Marble, a NYC-based digital wallet for insurance, raised $4.2 million in venture funding. Distributed Ventures led the round and was joined by Blue Collective, Goodwater Capital, and CE Innovation Capital, as well as insiders IA Capital Group, MS&AD Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures.

The New York CTO Summit is accepting registrations for its 2023 summit on May 10 and 11. The invite-only event is for senior product and engineering leaders and features speakers from Adobe, Flatiron Health, Oscar Health, Sotheby’s, ngrok, and more. Learn more and apply to attend here.Primary Venture Partners is accepting applications exclusively from women, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming entrepreneurs for its next Founders Fellowship, a two-month part-time immersion program in business creation. Learn more and apply by May 7 here.Betaworks is accepting applications for its AI Camp: Augment accelerator program. The three-month program offers 8-10 pre-seed/seed applied machine learning and generative AI companies a $500,000 investment, as well as mentorship and programming opportunities. Learn more and apply by May 22 here.The Grand Central Tech Residency Program is accepting applications for its Fall 2023 cohort. Selected startups receive free office rent for a year, as well as other community and programming benefits. Learn more and apply by July 15 here.

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