Thursday, September 18, 2025

September 18, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Thursday, September 18, 2025 

In today’s digest, Climate Week NYC, protection from porch pirates, and the consumer AI race. 🤖

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  • Climate Week NYC, the world’s largest climate event of its kind, returns to the Big Apple next week! 🌎 The event brings together tens of thousands of people who are excited to discuss innovative climate-related ideas. (Reuters)

  • Stony Brook University will receive a $300 million investment to establish the Quantum Research and Innovation Hub, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced. 🧑‍💻 (Newsday)

    • The investment will allow the university to attract top researchers and students, launch new startups, create jobs, and continue to establish New York as a major center for quantum computing.

  • Porch pirates, you’re running out of luck! The city is expanding its free, secure public delivery locker program to 36 locations this fall. 📦 (NBC New York)

    • About 90,000 packages are reported stolen or lost in transit in New York City each day.

    • The program also aims to reduce the number of double-parked vehicles, ease delivery truck congestion, and lower emissions.

    • Check out the locations of all the lockers here.


In other reading:

  • The best, the most, and the weirdest from New York Fashion Week (Washington Post)

  • Rent prices are declining in these 8 NYC neighborhoods (Patch)

The Latest on the Consumer AI Race 🏁

Andreessen Horowitz just dropped the 5th edition of its Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps list, and while the hype cycle keeps spinning, a handful of apps are starting to dominate and carve out moats.

So what’s working? Two clear lanes are emerging:

  • 🤖 General-purpose LLM assistants — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini continue to top the list across web and mobile.

  • 🎨 Creative tools — ElevenLabs, Midjourney, Photoroom, and others are locking in their place as default options for AI-generated art, video, and voice.

💡 Other trends catching our eye:

  • Vertical focus wins: Startups like ElevenLabs are winning by going deep, not broad. 

  • AI productivity is rising: Tools that help users automate email, build decks, or write code (hello Replit, Lovable) are catching on fast.

  • China’s breakout moment: With U.S. apps blocked in China and Chinese teams expanding globally, names like ByteDance’s Doubao and Moonshot’s Kimi are gaining ground.

  • Mobile-native experiences are winning: A16z notes that AI’s breakout consumer moment is happening not on the desktop, but on the smartphone. That’s good news for NYC startups used to building for mobile-first audiences.

In other reading:

  • Prioritize skills over degrees to secure the next generation of tech-ready talent (Fast Company)

  • How personalizing your WFH desk can help you work better (Wall Street Journal)

  • How to make enterprise gen AI work (HBR)

  • Aleph, an NYC-based provider of planning and analysis automation for finance teams, raised $29 million in Series B funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, joined by Bain Capital Ventures and Picus Capital.

  • Birches Health, an NYC-based provider of gambling addiction treatment, raised $20 million in Series A and seed funding. AlleyCorp led the Series A round and General Catalyst led the seed round.

  • GridStrong, an NYC-based electric grid compliance and operations platform, raised $10 million in seed funding. Congruent Ventures led the round and was joined by Energize Capital and others.

  • Icarus, an NYC-based company developing robots designed for labor in space, raised $6.1 million in seed funding. Soma Capital and Xtal led the round and were joined by Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures.

  • Markup AI, an NYC-based developer of software designed to ensure that AI content meets brand and compliance standards, raised $27.5 million in Series A funding. Genui Partners and EMH Partners led the round and were joined by Capital Factory and others.

  • September 23: Founders Without Borders Mixer, a no-agenda, high-energy night where India’s and America’s sharpest founders, creators, PMs, operators, and VCs meet over drinks, beats, and bold ideas. Register 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. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.

  • September 24: Power on: Climate & Circularity in Electronics, spotlighting real-world innovations, lessons from early adopters, and how to tackle the toughest challenges to scaling circularity. Register here.

  • September 24: Demo Night, an AI Review event featuring demos from some of the more compelling AI applications being built in New York today. Register here.

  • September 24: ​The First 10 Breakfast Series, bringing together founders, VCs, and operators for candid, unfiltered conversations about the first 10 hires, customers, decisions, and lessons that make or break a company. Register here.

  • September 25: NYC Climate Week — Scaling Solutions with Fortune 100, exploring how Fortune 500 companies are aligning climate goals with business strategy, leveraging data to drive accountability, and empowering next-gen solutions to scale through meaningful partnerships. Register here.

  • September 26: Women Leading Change: AI & The Wealth Shift, a panel and networking event on how artificial intelligence is transforming wealth and entrepreneurship. Register here.

  • September 29: From Demos to Durable AI: A Fireside Chat with Arize’s Aman Khan, who will share how to turn AI experiments into dependable products. Register here.

  • October 2: From Founder to CEO: Leading Through Growth, an evening for early-stage founders who are building fast-paced, ambitious companies — and want to lead them well. Register here.

  • October 7-9: The 12th Annual TechFutures Summit, featuring hands-on workshops, keynote speakers, live podcast recordings, and networking events. Register here.

  • October 7: Information Security Summit, for public sector leaders, cybersecurity pros, and tech experts committed to safeguarding New York’s state and local government operations. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 25% discount here.

  • October 8: Speed Pitching: 1:1 Meetings With Investors, for AI-powered startups with market-ready MVP or revenue generating, preferably with one underrepresented founder, pre-seed to Series A. Register with promo code TechNYC20 for a 20% discount here.

  • October 23: Tech:NYC and Crain’s Tech Summit, a day of conversations that explore how AI is transforming key industries — from reshaping real estate tools and bedside care to revolutionizing financial strategies and raising urgent legal considerations. Register with promo code FRIENDSOFTECHNYC for a 15% discount here.

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