Tuesday, September 23, 2025

September 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Tuesday, September 23, 2025 

In today’s digest, housing vouchers for NYC shelter residents, new homes upstate, and the East Coast flexes its EV muscle. ⚡

  • But first: We’re a month out from the annual Tech Summit by Crain’s and Tech:NYC! Join us on October 23 for conversations on how AI is transforming industries, with speakers Kate Ryder (Maven), Eric Kinariwala (Capsule), Laura Peterson (Accenture), Elana Berkowitz (Springbank), John Borthwick (Betaworks), Everett Cook (Rho), Jennifer Butler (Zillow), and more.

    • 🎟️ Register with promo code FRIENDSOFTECHNYC here.

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  • New York State Governor Kathy Hochul kicked off “Move In NY,” a $50 million program aimed at easing the housing shortage in suburban, upstate, and rural New York. (New York Times)  🏡

    • The program is set to deliver 200 affordable “manufactured homes”, part of a $1.5 billion housing initiative.

  • In more housing news, New York City is issuing more housing vouchers for homeless residents than ever before, with over 26,000 people moving from shelters into permanent housing last year — an 83% increase since 2019. (Gothamist)

    • The city-funded CityFHEPS program now supports 60,000 households and helped 12,500 of the 23,000 households who successfully moved out of shelters last year.

  • After a dry September so far and a drought watch in most of New York, the city is set to see rain starting today and running through the weekend. 🍂 (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • Canal Street is getting a pedestrian makeover with super-sized sidewalks (TimeOut New York)

  • Survival of the fattest: Your guide to Fat Bear Week 2025 (USA Today)

  • Ryder Cup 2025: Top events, watch parties & fan experiences ⛳ (The Center Magazine)

East Coast = Beast Coast for Electric Vehicles

With Climate Week NYC underway, all eyes are on how New York and the broader East Coast can accelerate the clean transportation transition via electric vehicles.

What’s 🆕: A new EV Index from HERE.com highlights just how critical the region’s role is in electrifying America’s highways. ⚡ The Northeast remains the most welcoming region for both current and prospective EV drivers. 💪

🔍 Zoom out: This year’s analysis found that the U.S. added 37,000 EV charging points, up 19% from 2024, and increased total charge power by 52%. 

  • Yes: but: Growth was slower than in 2024, when the U.S. had a 32% YoY increase in charge point installations and an 82% jump in total charge power.

📊 The rankings: New York comes in at No. 4 on the Index’s annual EV ranking, up two spots from last year. The rankings are based on four factors: 

  • How far drivers have to travel to find a charger.

  • How quickly they can charge.

  • The number of EVs on the road versus gas-powered vehicles.

  • The likelihood of finding an unoccupied charger.

New York boasts a charger for every nine vehicles, but ratios vary between dense Manhattan and rural upstate areas.

Perception vs. reality: 53% of U.S. survey respondents pointed to a perception of the lack of charging access as the top barrier to EV adoption.

  • The findings highlight “a pivotal moment where infrastructure deployment is falling behind rising EV demand,” according to the release.

🚙 Tech meets transit: ICYMI, NYC’s Transit Tech Lab just released the results of its 2025 cohort, detailing how AI helped agencies fix ridership and inspection challenges.

In other reading:

  • The rush to return to the office is stalling (Wall Street Journal)

  • The billion-dollar infrastructure deals powering the AI boom (TechCrunch)

  • A new internet standard aims to help websites earn money from AI (Morning Brew)

  • Argyle, a New York-based verification platform for income and employment data, raised funding from Mastercard and insiders Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire.

  • Catena, a New York-based logistics data startup, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Floating Point.

  • Earthmover, an NYC-based weather and climate data provider, raised $7.2 million in seed funding. Lowercarbon Capital led the round, joined by Costanoa Ventures and Preston-Werner Ventures.

  • Prosper AI, an NYC-based developer of AI voice agents for health care operations, raised $5 million in seed funding. Emergence Capital led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, CRV, and Company Ventures.

  • Seven Starling, an NYC-based provider of maternal telemental services, raised $8 million. Rethink Impact led the round, joined by Pear VC, Zeal Capital Partners, Magnify Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Expa, Fiore Ventures, March of Dimes, Rogue Women's Fund, and Graham & Walker.

  • Testkube, a New York-based continuous testing platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners and Ratmir Timashev led the round.

  • Unit 221B, an NYC-based cybercrime tracking company, raised $5 million in seed funding led by J2 Ventures, with participation from Pipeline Capital.

  • 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: 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: ​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: 11th Annual Bloomberg-Columbia Machine Learning in Finance Conference 2025, with talks by international practitioners and academics on AI applications in finance including asset pricing models, neural SDEs, market sentiment analysis, and fairness in financial ML. 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: 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 7-9: The 12th Annual TechFutures Summit, featuring hands-on workshops, keynote speakers, live podcast recordings, and networking events. Register 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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