Tuesday, March 3, 2026
In today’s digest, SCOTUS ends a redistricting fight, audio ads in the subway, and a deep dive into insurtech. 🏥
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Congestion pricing lives on. 🚙 A federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s attempt to kill the toll program was unlawful. (New York Times)
While other legal challenges remain, the ruling is a major victory for Governor Kathy Hochul and the state’s defense of the traffic reduction plan.
In other legal news, the U.S. Supreme Court paused a lower court order that would have required New York to redraw Staten Island’s 11th Congressional District before the midterms. 🗳️ (Gothamist)
As a result, the district map — which includes all of Staten Island and part of south Brooklyn — will remain unchanged for the 2026 election cycle.
The decision is likely a win for Republicans in the fight for majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and ends the state’s only mid-decade redistricting dispute this cycle as candidates and voters head toward the November elections.
Your commute may soon come with commercials. The MTA has been testing 30-second audio ads at select subway stations, and will decide soon whether to continue the program (which would begin in June). The ads would play every 10 minutes and be capped at 75 decibels. 🎧 (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
Only audio advertisements for media, entertainment, and sports will be allowed at first, and if approved systemwide, the ads could open up a new revenue stream for the transit system.
In other reading:
‘Broadway Vision’: City will revamp six more blocks by 2031 (Streetsblog NYC)
New Absolute Bagels changes its name (West Side Rag)
Dumbo’s most creative cotton candy store is coming to Union Square (Time Out New York)
The State of Insurance Tech
CB Insights’ recent State of Insurtech 2025 report shows a sector where funding is up, but flowing to fewer companies and from fewer investors.
Here’s a breakdown of the findings and what it all means for New York tech. 👇
More dollars, fewer bets: Global insurtech funding rose to $5.3 billion (+10% YoY), even as the number of deals fell to 405 (-11%). Translation: investors are writing checks, just to fewer companies. 💰
The investor bench is smaller: Just 15 investors made at least four insurtech investments in 2025, the fewest since 2016. 🤏
Big rounds are carrying the category: The average deal climbed to $15.2 million (+13%), and $100 million+ mega-rounds nearly doubled (6 to 11). 📈
The “prove it” era is here: A smaller share of funding is going to super-early startups, as investors are prioritizing companies that look closer to real scale. 🧓
Customer acquisition is still expensive: Insurers are pouring money into growth, with U.S. digital ad spend projected to reach $16.98 billion in 2026 (+12.7% YoY). That means efficiency matters more than ever. 📣
🗽 Why this matters for NYC tech: When investors tighten up and growth gets pricier, advantage shifts to places with deep talent and real customers.
New York has both.
“Thirteen years after founding Oscar in New York, the city’s deep talent pool remains one of our greatest assets,” said Marco de Sa, SVP, Data at Oscar Health (a Tech:NYC member!). “As we move more towards AI-driven automation and predictive care, being at the heart of this ecosystem allows us to build that future alongside the best in tech.”
In other reading:
Agentic AI is the future of sales: Here’s how to get it right (Fast Company)
The startup where you worked failed. Your career should be fine (Wall Street Journal)
Peer influence can make or break your AI rollout (HBR)
Welcome to our weekly jobs section, where we spotlight a selection of the NYC tech jobs from Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board — all recently posted. 🔥
In light of our deep dive into insurtech above, here are a few insurance-related roles:
Manager, Project Management & Strategic Initiatives — Oscar Health ($111,780-146,711 / year): You’ll be responsible for leading all activities related to program implementation goals to ensure success of large cross-functional programs. Apply here.
Account Director, Insurance — OpenAI ($232K – $350K / year + equity): You’ll own executive-level relationships with leading Insurance organizations and help these companies safely and effectively deploy OpenAI’s technology to accelerate financial data analysis, automate backend operations, drive AI-powered research, and personalize customer engagement. Apply here.
Head of Insurance — Citi ($USD 250k-500k / year): You’ll be responsible for leading and executing the strategy for insurance globally and driving investment sales by delivering and positioning in the region Citi Private Bank’s Managed Investments offering and platform. Apply here.
➕ One more thing: Tech:NYC is hiring! We’re looking for an Associate Director, Workforce Programs to administer, operate, and strategically evolve our workforce development portfolio at the intersection of education, technology, and economic opportunity in New York City. Apply here.
Baba, an NYC-based patient advocacy platform, raised more than $6.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst, with participation from Genius Ventures, Soma Capital, Ground Up Ventures, Triedge Investments, and others.
Ease Health, an NYC-based company building AI-native operating systems for behavioral health providers, raised $41 million Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round.
Grow Therapy, an NYC-based mental health startup, raised $150 million in Series D funding at a $3 billion valuation. TCG and Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round, joined by Menlo Ventures, BCI, Sequoia Capital, SignalFire, and Transformation Capital.
March 5: NYC AI Demos, from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and The Refinery at Domino, featuring an all-female lineup of technical leaders from Anthropic, Datadog, Suno, Housewarming, Greenly, and Vellum building real AI products across infrastructure, dev tools, healthcare, fintech, and more. Register here.
March 5: Commonweal Ventures Briefing: Procurement at the Department of War, a virtual conversation with Andrew Hunter, Former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. Register here.
March 10: Hiring Beyond the 5 Boroughs, a roundtable for Heads of HR/People Ops and Talent to have an honest, off-the-record conversation about what’s working, what’s broken, and what no one really talks about when it comes to non-local hiring. Register here.
March 11: YouCode Forum: Building What's Next in The Agentic Era, an evening with James Kaplan, CTO of McKinsey, and Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, alongside enterprise builders and technical leaders. Register here.
March 19: City & State’s Digital New York Summit, for New York’s technology and information leaders from government and industry to gather for candid discussions and thought-provoking presentations on innovative ideas that are making everyday life for all New Yorkers more livable, safer, and more convenient. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for 25% off.
March 19: Founder Breakfast, a highly curated breakfast for founders who have raised Seed to Series B. Register here.
March 19: Human by Design: The Empathy Edge in an AI World, for women and allies who build — PMs, founders, designers, marketers, and engineers — to discuss how empathy, judgment, and collaborative AI tools can help you grow your influence and deliver meaningful impact in your work. Register here.
March 19: Airtable Buildathon, a one-day, live builder competition where participants solve real business challenges using Airtable and AI-powered workflows. Register here.
March 21: Anti-Slopathon, a hackathon where participants use AI to build tools, games, features, and experiences, but show how they’ve listened to their user and applied taste and design judgment. Register here.
March 25: Speed Pitch: Guaranteed 1:1 Meetings With Investors, for tech startups with market-ready MVP or revenue generating, preferably with one underrepresented founder, pre-seed to Series A. Register here with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off.
March 26: Founder Dinner, an intimate evening with a highly curated group of Series A+ founders that are scaling. Register here.
March 26: American Fintech Council’s inaugural Marketing and Communications Cocktails & Conversations, hosted in collaboration with Tech:NYC, CLYDE, and Current. Register here.
March 31: Runway AI Summit, bringing together industry leaders across media, technology, consumer brands, robotics, and more to explore how AI is reshaping how work gets done — and what comes next for enterprise. Register here with promo code TECHNYC50 for 50% off.
April 2: NYU Wagner’s 20th International Policy and Planning Summit, bringing together students, academics, and practitioners to explore cross-sectoral solutions to the interconnected global challenges of climate change, migration, and global urban resilience. Register here.
April 6-9: HumanX’s conference for AI leaders in San Francisco, uniting 6,500+ leaders, builders, and investors driving real transformation. Discover cutting-edge innovations and accelerate your impact through networking opportunities. Register here with promo code HX26P_TECHNYC to get $$$ off your pass.
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