Tuesday, May 12, 2026
In today’s digest, property taxes off the table, New York’s restaurant scene gets its annual power rankings, and April’s Series A class. 💰
But first: The lineup is officially set for the next NYC AI Demos from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees!
With NY Design Week as our backdrop, join us on Thursday, May 21 as we spotlight design companies with live demos from Figma, Air, The Browser Company, Cartwheel, and Flora. Register here.
Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially backed away from his proposed NYC property tax hike, dropping one of the few revenue-raising tools City Hall could have pursued without Albany’s approval. 💸 (Bloomberg)
Earlier this year, Mayor Mamdani floated a nearly 10% property tax increase while warning that the city faced a “generational fiscal crisis,” but the proposal quickly ran into opposition from City Council Speaker Julie Menin and other lawmakers.
Instead, Governor Hochul and the Mayor announced that New York State will provide an additional $4 billion in support for the city as officials work to close the budget gap ahead of the July 1 fiscal year deadline.
The New York Times dropped its annual ‘100 Best Restaurants in NYC’ list, and this year’s rankings are basically a love letter to Queens food culture. 🍜 (New York Times)
Queens claimed a huge share of the list with spots ranging from Jackson Heights kebab joints to Elmhurst Thai steam-table counters.
Caribbean tasting-menu spot Kabawa in the East Village snagged the top spot.
Lincoln Center just broke ground on a big redesign of its West Side campus. The $335 million plan will add gardens, groves, public gathering areas, and a new 2,000-person outdoor amphitheater. 🎭 (Broadway World)
Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2028, but you can check out the renderings here.
In other reading:
Our guide to New York Art Week (Artsy)
Free yoga in Bryant Park is back for the season (Time Out New York)
World Cup 2026: Is it possible to walk to Metlife Stadium from NYC? (The Guardian)
Your ad here
Tech:NYC is accepting Digest advertising inquiries! Get in front of the founders, builders, and operators shaping NYC.
If you or your company are a good fit for our audience of 13,000+ highly engaged NYC tech leaders, fill out our form here and we’ll be in touch. 🤝
Series A-pril Ascending
Powered by Obviously NYC, presented by Gunderson Dettmer, HubSpot for Startups, PwC US, and SVB.
April 2026’s Series A: A Series adds 21 new NYC-based startups that just crossed the milestone, and together they’re already hiring for 110+ NYC-based jobs. But the real headline is the size of the rounds themselves. 🦣
April’s cohort brought in a combined $606.3 million in Series A funding alone — up 70% from the $356.4 million raised by the 30 NYC founders who closed a Series A in April 2025.
Total funding across all rounds for this April 2026’s companies reached $754.3 million, compared to $645.1 million last year.
Plus, the average Series A round nearly doubled year-over-year — climbing from $13.7 million in April 2025 to $31.9 million this year.
The gap between “Series A capital” and “total historical funding” was also much tighter this year, suggesting investors are writing larger checks at the seed stage earlier, and making bigger bets.
Here’s what else stood out from April’s class:
🤖 AI infrastructure dominated the month: Of the 21 companies who announced a Series A in April, nine are building AI-native enterprise infrastructure, workflow automation, or operational tooling — and collectively they raised over $230 million.
🏥 New York continues to show strength in the digital health space with with five healthcare and health infrastructure startups — Yuzu Health, Photon Health, Ilant Health, Joyful Health, and Amperos — raising a combined $106 million in Series A funding, reinforcing NYC’s growing position as a hub for healthtech infrastructure.
💸 Fintech and financial infrastructure also remain strong: Financial infrastructure companies accounted for another significant slice of April’s activity, with startups like OpenFX, Mosaic, Modus Alliance, Blockworks, and Zenskar all operating in payments, accounting infrastructure, audit workflows, or institutional finance and raising $212 million+.
It’s a reminder that NYC’s legacy strengths in finance continue to translate directly into startup formation and venture investment.
🔐 Security and compliance continue rising alongside AI: As enterprises deploy AI systems faster, trust infrastructure is scaling right alongside them.
Companies like Artemis Security, Cybord, and Haast reflect growing investor appetite for startups focused on compliance automation, hardware integrity, and AI-native protection systems.
🗽 Why it matters: April’s cohort was bigger financially and more concentrated around infrastructure.
Compared to April 2025, investors wrote significantly larger checks into startups building the underlying systems for healthcare, finance, AI operations, and enterprise governance.
Explore the full April list, see who’s hiring, and zoom in on our map of NYC’s newest Series A companies here.
And, looking for your next role? With a fresh infusion of capital, these companies are hiring for scores of roles. Looking for something later-stage? Or even earlier? Visit the Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board to explore over 5,000 NYC-based in-person roles at over 400 companies who are a part of the Tech:NYC network.
Did we miss your Series A raise? Let us know — we want to spotlight every NYC founder turning vision into venture.
In other reading:
AI is turning connected cars into pothole-finding machines (TechCrunch)
How Brian Chesky is redesigning Airbnb for the AI era (Invest Like The Best/YouTube)
Research: Traditional marketing doesn’t work on AI shopping agents (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 today’s Series A deep dive, today, we’re highlighting a few roles at Series A companies:
Software Engineer — Baton Market ($180k-$220k / year + equity): You’ll work directly with their Head of Engineering and product team to build the agentic platform that powers how small businesses are bought and sold. Apply here.
Senior Forward Deployed Engineer — Sola ($160k-$300k / year + equity): You’ll ship real features and integrations for customers, contributing directly to the core codebase while owning technical customer deployments: network access, secure infrastructure, and connecting Sola agents to internal systems. Apply here.
Account Executive — Bikky ($160k-$200k / year + equity): You’ll have the opportunity to work some of the largest ACVs in restaurant technology and you’ll collaborate with teams across customer success, engineering, and product to ensure that prospect feedback is heard and you have the tools you need to deliver the most compelling value proposition. Apply here.
4AM, an NYC-based skincare company, raised $4 million in seed funding. CAVU Consumer Partners led the round and was joined by B4 Capital and Type Capital.
Exponent, an NYC-based provider of financing and expense management software for franchise operators, raised $10 million in Series A and seed funding from Era, Chailease, K8 Fund, Kyle Kuzma, Haza Foods, and Chunara Group.
Forus (fka Tandem), an NYC-based provider of software for administrative management of prescriptions, raised $160 million from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Redpoint, BoxGroup, and Pear VC.
Frame Security, an NYC-based platform that uses AI to simulate and prevent social engineering attacks, raised $50 million in funding from Index Ventures, Picture Capital, Team8, Assaf Rappaport, and Elad Gil.
Featured events:
⭐ May 18-20: Sports Business Journal Tech Week, bringing together sports tech leaders to network, drive innovation, and discuss the trends impacting the sector. Register here with promo code LG-TECHNYC-2025 to get 15% off your pass.
⭐ May 20: Nysernet Leadership Symposium: Cyber Resilience for Museums and Cultural Organizations, bringing together CIOs and CISOs from museums, arts, and cultural orgs for peer discussion and executive-level insight on today’s cyber risks. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for 10% off.
⭐ May 21: NYC AI Demos, from Tech:NYC, Pensar, and Two Trees, this month spotlighting design companies with demos from Figma, Air, The Browser Company, Cartwheel, and Flora. Register here.
Other great events:
May 13: Defending Your Budget, focusing on bridging the gap between marketing investment and board-level expectations, equipping you to drive and communicate performance in a way that builds clarity, confidence, and alignment. Register here.
May 13: Founders & Funders: NYC VC Reverse Pitch, an evening of networking and a chance to hear VCs pitch on their investment theses, target industries, check sizes, key differentiators, portfolios, and what they look for in founders. Register here.
May 14: Cornell Tech’s annual Startup Awards, bringing together the most promising student ventures for an evening of pitches, research, and community. Register here.
May 14: Brderless Founder Breakfast, a private founder breakfast for a curated group of Seed & Series A founders. Register here.
May 16: Civic Tech’ish Sets Sail, where members of the civic technology scene will be gathering aboard the NYC Ferry. Register here.
May 19: Agentic NYC: Retail Analytics in the Era of Agentic AI, a session on how elite retail are using agentic AI to move faster, be more prolific, and build more sophisticated analytics. Register here.
May 19: Commerce Leaders Mixer at The Lead Summit, a curated evening of networking with senior retail and brand leaders across ecommerce, marketing, and digital. Register here.
May 20: Female Founders and Funders, where female founders can meet potential investors, and funders can discover innovative new ventures. Register here.
May 21: Brderless Founder Dinner, a private founder dinner for a curated group of Series A+ founders. Register here.
May 27: Cornell Tech Frontiers of AI Summit, bringing together academia, industry, and the public sector to explore the foundational perspectives that are shaping the future of AI. Register here.
May 28: Niural AI Summit, a pre-NY Tech Week summit bringing together CFOs, finance leaders, HR executives, founders, and investors shaping the future of AI-native finance and people operations. Register here for a discounted rate for Tech:NYC Digest readers.
June 16: Business Incubator Association of New York State’s 2026 Annual Conference, featuring high-impact panels with communities building across New York. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for a discounted pass.
Daily Digest Rewards 🎁
Treat yourself: Send subscribers our way, and we’ll send swag your way.
1 Referral: Shoutout in the Digest
5 Referrals: Obviously NYC Hat
10 Referrals: Obviously NYC Tote Bag
25 Referrals: Obviously NYC Sweatshirt
{{rp_personalized_text}}
Or share your personal link with others: {{ rp_refer_url }}
Want to advertise in the Digest? Fill out our form here.
Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here.
Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.
