New York Tech

Ecosystem

State of the

2023 Annual Report | Tech:NYC

A note from our founder

What a year.

New York certainly wasn’t immune from the headwinds facing every other tech hub across the globe this year. But from those challenges, a key insight emerged: The industry is resilient, especially here in New York, where tech companies continue to build at a staggering pace. As a result, the speed of innovation is moving faster than ever — the ideas New York tech leaders put into motion under this year’s constraints will unlock the leaps of growth I expect we’ll see next year and beyond.

It’s an auspicious time for the tech sector — we believe the rapid adoption of AI-powered tools and technologies, and the stories they inspire, will impact the course of human history, down to each city block across the five boroughs. That’s why it’s more important than ever that our industry works with government, other industries, and civic partners to ensure that these developments benefit all New Yorkers.

As in years past, this isn’t your standard annual report: It’s a year-end celebration of the entire New York tech ecosystem — and all the Tech:NYC member companies committed to its success. I’ve never been more confident about the community we are building here. Thank you for being a part of it. Onward to 2024!

– Julie Samuels
President & Executive Director

Top Highlights

In an uncertain year, New York tech maintained its position as an economic engine for New York  — creating more jobs, raising more venture capital, and building enthusiasm for a new wave of early-stage companies.

The number of tech-enabled startups. The city’s startup ecosystem remained resilient, and early-stage companies sprung up in lower Manhattan, downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City, and other tech nodes across the five boroughs.

The total amount of venture capital raised by New York startups in 2023. Fundraising activity was on par with 2020 levels, but seed and Series A dealflow proved most resilient this year.

The ecosystem value of New York tech in 2023. Even as valuations saw a market correction, the total value of New York startup valuations plus exits (132 startups in 2023) climbed to $647B.

The number of tech jobs in New York. Post-pandemic, New York has recorded the second-largest increase in tech workers after the Bay Area, with roughly 13K new tech jobs in 2023.

Venture Capital

Even amidst a market slowdown, New York remained one of the most attractive hubs for new VC investments.

Hover over each cell to see more information about deals at each stage and in each quarter.

  • There are more than 300 venture capital firms based in NYC.

  • Venture fundraising in NYC startups returned to 2020 levels, with seed and Series A companies raising over $3.4 billion in 2023.

  • New York’s share of US fundraising passed 15% market share for the first time on a deal count basis.

  • That increase was especially true for fintechs, where New York earned 24% of fintech fundraising in the US in 2023 (up from less than 20% in 2017).

  • AI/ML and construction tech were among the most resilient in terms of deal count.

  • There were eight new NYC unicorns in 2023 (bringing the total to 146), including:

    • AI video and image editing tool RunwayML; digital mental health provider Headway; identity verification software Prove; and blockchain cloud infrastructure platform CoreWeave.

Top global firms — Sequoia, a16z, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, and Iconiq Capital — continues to expand their presence and investments in New York, both in terms of headcount and dealflow.

A swell of debut funds including Dimension, Transition VC, m]x[v Capital, and Hash3, among others, opened up shop in New York to add to the early-stage activity that marked 2023.

NYC launched the Venture Access Alliance, a first-in-the-nation coalition of 80+ VC firms in partnership with Tech:NYC, to better diversify the founder and funder landscape in New York tech.

Jobs

While layoffs were in the headlines, New York’s tech jobs numbers have fully recovered from the pandemic and continue to grow.

NYC has outperformed all other major US cities outside of San Francisco when it comes to tech job growth.

  • Tech industry employment in the five boroughs has increased a striking 160% in the last 15 years, compared to 54% growth across the US.

  • While tech employment in NYC did slump early in the pandemic, it rebounded strongly in 2021 and was up 17% from pre-pandemic levels by early 2023.

Tech industries currently account for about 5% of New York City employment but almost 10% of total wage and salary income.


Tech:NYC’s annual hiring survey in partnership with Accenture found:

  • Nearly 60% of respondents plan to increase their number of tech hires.

  • 99% of respondents said they felt able to secure the tech talent they needed from the city’s existing talent pool. (That’s up from 87% in last year’s report.)

  • Cloud, security, and AI/ML skills remain the most in-demand skills for employers’ hiring targets.

Tech:NYC launched a comprehensive New York tech jobs board to centralize every job opening at every member company.

  • The board automatically updates every 24 hours with new postings.

Explore the Tech:NYC Jobs Board →

Next-Generation Founder Talent

New York remains a magnet for first-time and early-stage founders.

For the first time, Manhattan was home to the most early stage startups in the US, edging out San Francisco.

  • 543 Manhattan-based companies raised a seed or Series A round between March 2022 and March 2023, compared to 486 in San Francisco.

Early-stage founders in NYC are stepping up to chart the path forward in AI, finance, health, climate, enterprise, and more.


Companies to Watch

This year’s Tech:NYC Companies to Watch, a group of 40 early-stage New York founders, have raised more than $270M in venture backing to date.

Tech:NYC Founder House

We invited more than 50 emerging founders to collaborate with investors, industry experts, and each other to take their startups to the next level as part of its first two cohorts in 2023.

Founder Fellowship

A citywide program to improve access to capital and networks for underrepresented founders has seen more than 100 startups participate to date.

Sector Growth

New York has grown into a global hub for every high-growth area of the tech industry.

  • There are at least 1,463 NYC startups in the AI/ML space.

  • AI startups earned some of the city’s largest VC investments this year. Among them:

    • Runway’s $141M Series C

    • Pinecone’s $100M Series B

    • Hugging Face’s $235M Series D

  • New York State launched a $20 million investment in partnership with IBM to advance the state’s AI research, policy, and workforce development goals.

  • NYC’s AI Action Plan is the first of any major US city to develop a framework on the responsible use of AI tools.

  • 100+ NYC-based climate startups have been founded over the last four years, with 159 in the sector securing venture capital since 2021.

  • In 2023, NYC climate startups have earned $664 million in venture or growth funding across 34 deals. $3.5 billion in VC has flowed into New York’s climate tech sector since 2021.

  • Mandates like Local Law 97 have spurred demand for decarbonization hardware and software.

  • NYC announced two startup programs as part of its sustainability focused PlaNYC agenda: one to help early-stage companies incubate solutions for urban environments and another to attract international companies. 

  • Governors Island is being transformed into a $700 million “living laboratory” for climate solutions, and a $20 million biotech hub will open for startups using sustainability focused biotechnology.

  • Fintechs earned some of the most notable venture rounds in 2023, including:

    • Clear Street’s $435M Series B

    • Ramp’s $300M Series D

    • AlphaSense’s $150M Series E

  • There are more than 1,600 fintech startups in NYC.

  • New York’s share of fintech fundraising grew to 24% as a percentage of total US fundraising in 2023, up from less than 20% in 2017.

  • Fintech and SaaS remained the two most active sectors in 2023 in terms of deal count.

  • NYC has ranked #1 in US healthtech job postings over the past five years.

  • In the first half of 2023, 62 NYC digital health companies raised $1.6 billion in venture funding.

  • NYC hosted the first-ever Women’s Health Summit to convene healthtech founders and other experts to build the city’s policy agenda on accessible healthcare.

  • NYC partnered with NYC-based digital mental health startup Talkspace to provide free therapy services to all NYC teens.

  • Women’s and family health was a bright spot for the sector in 2023, with notable deals including:

    • Spring Health’s $71M round

    • Pomelo Care’s $33M Series A

    • Wellthy’s $25.5M round

Real Estate

Despite a year of ongoing shifts in the office market, New York tech remains committed to the city and its employees working here.

Hover over the blue pins to explore major tech sector office expansions in 2023.

In a year marked by headlines of companies offloading office space, Tech:NYC tracked nearly 50 tech companies that expanded their office footprints in the city. Among them:

Other highlights include:

  • Amazon opened its newest office at the iconic Lord & Taylor Building in midtown Manhattan. The landmarked building, which Amazon purchased in 2020, underwent a full restoration to make space for more than 2,000 employees.

  • AlleyCorp, the early-stage VC firm led by Kevin Ryan, doubled down on its NYC roots by purchasing a building in Nolita, committing to 32,000 sq. ft. of space for the firm and its portfolio companies.

  • Revel joined Uber, Lyft and other rideshare service startups at the Falchi Building in Long Island City, Queens with 8,000 sq. ft. of new office space.

Skills and Training

New York is home to major initiatives to cultivate the next generation of tech talent right here at home.

The NYC Computer Science Opportunity Fair (CS Fair) held its eighth edition as NYC’s largest annual college and career inspiration event for public high school students studying computer science.

  • Nearly 2,000 students from 60+ schools attended this year’s event where they engaged with interactive booths from more than 70 tech companies, colleges and universities, and other tech training programs.

Tech Year NYC, a partnership between Tech:NYC and New York City Public Schools, provides pathways for NYC public high school students to access careers in tech.

  • More than 30 high schools participated in this year’s program, reaching approximately 5,000 students.

  • Program areas focused on cybersecurity, software engineering, and data analytics micro-internships.

  • More than a dozen NYC-based tech companies participated as hosts and mentors to the program’s cohorts.

Tech:NYC BY THE NUMBERS

We represent 800+ companies that make up the NYC tech ecosystem, including large global corporations, early-stage startups, and every size in between.

Our Members

We love New York. We work with the companies who agree.

Learn about our members here. Interested in joining this community? Find details on how to join us here.

Our Leaders

We welcomed Julie Samuels back to Tech:NYC as president and executive director.

Tech:NYC’s founder returned this year to lead the organization into next phase of our growth.

We expanded our leadership to chart the next chapter of New York tech’s growth.

In 2023, we expanded our board to 60 top New York founders, investors, and other tech leaders.

Mayor Eric Adams take a selfie at Tech:NYC’s 2023 Board meeting.

Our Policy Priorities

Tech:NYC maintains a robust cadence of meetings with dozens of State Senators, Assembly Members, NYC Council Members, and other policymakers to connect them to industry leaders investing in the New York economy.

  • US Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand'

  • Gov. Kathy Hochul

  • Mayor Eric Adams

  • Attorney General Letitia James

  • Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado

  • And several more policymakers

Tech:NYC offered government leaders memos on several topics, including:

  • Data privacy & child data privacy;

  • Public broadband and 5G;

  • Home sharing and food delivery platforms,

  • Increasing access to tech jobs;

  • Autonomous vehicles;

  • Law enforcement use of personal data;

  • Blockchain technologies

Tech:NYC delivered official testimony on a wide range of issues, including:

  • E-bike safety;

  • AI in public education;

  • EV infrastructure;

  • Cryptocurrency regulation;

  • Rideshare pricing;

  • Facial recognition;

  • Congestion pricing

Our Events

75+

EVENTS

In 2023, we hosted more than 75 events, convening the city’s top tech leaders, emerging startup founders, and our deep rolodex of government and civic partners. Among this year’s highlights:

  • New York Tech Week: Tech:NYC hosted a dozen of our own events and helped curate dozens more for our member companies. Led by a16z, this year’s New York Tech Week was the largest Tech Week across all US cities to date.

  • Tech:NYC Founder House: We developed dozens of workshops, office hour sprints, and other events inside our own Founder House, a new initiative that supported 50 early-stage New York founders across two cohorts.

  • Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg: Our long-running speaker series highlighting stories from NYC’s most exciting founders included Rho’s Everett Cook, Duolingo’s Luis von Ahn, Esusu’s Wemimo Abbey, Ramp’s Eric Glyman, Wonder’s Marc Lore, and more.

In addition, we hosted three citywide summits for our community, including:

  • Mayoral Drone Forum: Hosted in collaboration with Mayor Eric Adams, we brought the commissioners of several city agencies and aerial mapping startups together to demo how drones can help make NYC safer and more resilient.

  • 2023 New York Tech Summit: Hosted in partnership with Crain’s New York Business, we convened the founders and investors leading the ecosystem’s buzziest growth.

  • Symposium on Child Privacy and the Internet: Hosted in collaboration with the NYU Information Law Institute and several advocacy organizations, we convened a group of data privacy experts to discuss how child privacy laws could impact marginalized communities.

Our Research

2023 Tech Talent and Hiring Survey

Our annual tech talent survey, produced in partnership with Accenture, shows continued appetite to increase tech hires across all industries and near unanimous confidence that employers can source the talent they need from NYC’s local talent pool.

2023 Global Startup Ecosystem Report

An annual Startup Genome analysis of nearly 300 tech ecosystems around the world, with support from Tech:NYC and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, finds that NYC has maintained its position as the second-most successful tech hub globally, only behind Silicon Valley.

Our Press

Tech:NYC was cited in 80+ stories in 2023 across dozens of local, national, and broadcast outlets. Some highlights:

New York Magazine’s 2023 Power Issue

The Most Powerful New Yorkers You’ve Never Heard Of

“The reason tech and City Hall don’t hate each other — like they do in San Francisco — is Julie Samuels.”

Read more →

Photo: Mark Peterson

The Wall Street Journal

Tech Leaders Launch Effort to Support Critical Israeli Tech Startups

Crain's New York Business

The flywheel effect powering the next wave of New York tech leaders

Bloomberg

NYC Releases Plan to Embrace AI, and Regulate It

CNBC

New York is a tech startup hotbed after almost a decade-long run of IPOs

Axios

New York wants to be AI's world capital

NY1

Tech:NYC president discusses future of artificial intelligence