Thursday, August 7, 2025

August 07, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, August 7, 2025 

In today’s digest, museum exhibits in NYC, Harlem Week in full swing, and a review of funding for female founders. 💸

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  • Art lovers rejoice. 🎉 After being closed for seven years due to renovations, the Studio Museum in Harlem has announced it will reopen later this year in a new seven-floor building on West 125th Street. (TimeOut New York)

    • The building will house art exhibitions, educational opportunities, program spaces and an expansive lobby.

    • On a related note: Here are the best museum exhibitions in NYC right now. 🖼️

  • Speaking of Harlem, ICYMI: You didn’t miss it! You can still celebrate Harlem Week, which runs until Aug. 17. The event, now in its 51st year, features night markets, fundraising races, music, and much more to celebrate the uptown neighborhood. 🥳 (amNY)

    • Check out the Harlem Week schedule of activities here.

  • In an effort to reduce student loan payments for all residents and simplify access to loan forgiveness plans, NYC has launched a student loan reduction and college savings assistance program. 💰 (PIX 11)

    • Through the partnership, NYC residents can use the free online portal to verify their eligibility for programs that lower their monthly student loan payments, compare repayment options, manage their federal program enrollment paperwork, and stay on track for loan forgiveness.

    • Get more details on the program here.


In other reading:

  • What everyone needs to know about this week’s earthquakes in NJ (Gothamist)

  • A diner gets a second life in front of the camera (New York Times)

  • NYC’s iconic Flatiron Building will get bathed in lights for first time in 123-year history (New York Post)

Who runs the world (girls)! Women founders have made massive strides in the past decade, and the numbers show real impact. But there’s still work to be done, especially with funding. 

What’s 🆕: Data shows women deliver more revenue per dollar and female-led teams burn less capital, according to a new report from Female Founders Fund.

📊 By the numbers:

  • Female-led exits nearly doubled over the past decade. 📈

  • There has been a sevenfold jump in female-led IPOs. 📈

  • Series A activity in NYC and San Francisco almost quadrupled from 2014 to 2022, though then retreated to double the growth by 2024. 📈

  • Women now hold 17% of decision-making roles at U.S. VC firms, which is nearly triple their share from 2014. 📈

  • Around 120 total U.S. unicorns (~18% of all U.S. unicorns) are led or co-led by women, up from nine total female-founded unicorns worldwide in 2014. 📈

  • The timeline for a female-founded startup to reach unicorn status dropped to just 4.2 years, outpacing the broader U.S. average of 4.5 years. 📈

Yes, but: Gaps still remain, particularly when it comes to funding. Funding remains flat for female-founded companies, as women-only founding teams received just 2.1% of total venture funding in 2024.

So how do we fix this? There’s no one-stop solution for everything and change takes time, but NYC is leading the charge with various initiatives. 🗽

Bottom line: Over the past decade, female founders have been outperforming, and while funding remains disproportionately low, the market is starting to correct itself. 

In other reading:

  • Providing ChatGPT to the entire U.S. federal workforce (OpenAI)

  • How DeepSeek and open-source models are shaking up AI (Bloomberg)

  • It’s time to streamline how we communicate at work (HBR)

  • Elion, an NYC-based AI-powered research and intelligence platform for health care technology, raised $9.3 million in seed funding. NEA led the round and was joined by Cedars Sinai Health Ventures, TMV, Scrub Capital, and Alumni Ventures.

  • Lorikeet, an NYC-based developer of AI-powered customer concierge software, raised $35 million in Series A funding. QED Investors led the round and was joined by Blackbird, Square Peg, Skip Capital, Capital49, Operator Partners, Airtree, and Athletic Ventures.

  • Stavtar, an NYC-based spend management platform for alt asset managers, raised $55 million in Series A funding from Elephant.

  • Tavily, an NYC-based startup connecting AI agents to the web, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners.

  • WiseBee, an NYC-based cybersecurity platform, raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding from Frontline Ventures and BrightCap Ventures.

  • August 8: New York City Tech Mixer and Social, for afterwork drinks and networking with tech workers in NYC. Register here.

  • August 12: Founders: Raised, Raising, and Ready – Mixer, a founder-to-founder mixer where you connect, share, and explore opportunities that only happen when ambitious minds collide. Register here.

  • August 14: AI Agent Buildathon, for builders, AI-nerds, tech-enthusiasts, and investors. Register here.

  • August 21: August Founder Dinner, for a curated group of pre-seed to series A founders, especially those building in B2B SaaS & AI. Register here.

  • August 26: Brderless x Rho Founder Breakfast, for a curated group of seed-stage founders (post raise) who are scaling or gearing up for Series A. Register here.

  • September 3-4: Go-To-Market: Building Distribution Engine that Scales, a two-day workshop for early-stage founders to master go-to-market strategy, build a scalable distribution engine, and get real feedback from top operators and founders. Register here.

  • September 10: NYC Summit, Primary’s annual invite-only conference, bringing together 2,000 top founders, VCs, and LPs. This year’s speakers include Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals), David Karp (Tumblr), Toyin Ajayi (Cityblock Health), Lina Khan (FTC), Kareem Amin (Clay), and more. Apply to attend here.

  • September 23: Deep Tech Forum + Startup Showcase in NYC, bringing together deep tech startups from across the globe alongside corporate innovation leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners, for a full day of mainstage sessions and startup exhibitions. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.

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