Wednesday, July 23, 2025

July 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, July 23, 2025 

In today’s digest, NYC mosquitoes thrive, more accessible subway stations arrive, and the NYC digital health sector is alive (and well). 🧑‍⚕️

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  • Thank you, congestion pricing! Twelve more subway stations throughout the city are set to get accessibility upgrades, thanks in part to the funding raised through the toll program. 🚇 (amNY)

    • The 12 stations join the already announced 60 subways set to become ADA-accessible under the MTA’s $68.4 billion five-year budget plan.

  • Free after-school programs will open at 40 schools in September, creating 5,000 additional seats for K-5 students. 🎒 (New York Post)

    • Additional funding will roll out to create nearly 20,000 more seats by fall 2027, bringing the total kids served to 184,000 students citywide.

    • Check out the full list of schools, which were chosen based on community needs and service gaps, here.

  • It’s a wet, hot, New York City summer, and mosquitoes are here for it. 🦟 Orkin pest control recently ranked New York third on its list of American urban hot spots for mosquitoes, though the total number of mosquito pools that have tested positive for West Nile virus in the city is down 80%. (Gothamist)

    • To ward off the pests, experts recommend wearing light-colored, loose-fitting clothes, using fans, and swatting the air like you’re doing karate (that last one is just a guess).


In other reading:

  • Can NYC ditch the gas generator? (Isaac Oates)

  • The hottest new cafe is in someone’s living room (New York Times)

  • Free and low-cost Wi-Fi coming to some parts of NYC (PIX11)

New York City stands at the forefront of innovation across every industry — including healthcare. 🏥

From cutting-edge research to technological advancements in medicine, the digital health space has never been more forward-thinking.

What’s new: A report from Digital Health New York found that in the first half of the year, 69 NYC digital health companies raised $2.4 billion, about a 10% increase from 2024, demonstrating a healthy and diversified investment landscape, as well as a continued confidence in New York’s healthcare ecosystem.

  • 76% of funding was from late-stage companies, while 24% was from early-stage companies. 📊

  • The techbio & life sciences was the top sector at 27% of the funding, followed by administrative efficiency (23%) and care delivery and coordination (16%). 📈

⏩ What will drive innovation in H2? Brenton Fargnoli, MD, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (a Tech:NYC member!), has some ideas:

  • “Administrative healthcare AI, driving provider efficiency and patient experience, are seeing a landgrab moment. AI for scribing and [revenue cycle management] have set the stage here with front-office AI (including voice) up next,” he said. “On the clinical side, areas like nursing, primary care, and therapy with persistent supply/demand mismatches are in the process of adding a new member of the care team — AI.”

🤖 AI + digital health:

  • A recent study found that working side by side with clinicians in Kenya, AI can reduce medical errors by as much as 16%.   

  • Another recent study from researchers at NYU showed that AI can track cells damaged from injury, aging, or disease to help create new therapies and treatments.

  • AlphaFold2, a machine learning model, can predict the shapes of nearly all 200 million known proteins. This helps scientists better understand how proteins work, making it easier to design new ones and speeding up early drug research.

➕ One more thing: The White House unveiled its strategic plan on AI today, which includes more than 90 federal policy actions aimed at speeding up AI development in the U.S. Learn more about what's included in the plan here.

  • 🗽 The potential impact on New York: Under the plan, the federal government could prohibit AI-related funding to be given to states with burdensome AI regulations, potentially impacting future AI legislation in NY.

In other reading:

  • Google AI system wins gold medal in International Math Olympiad (New York Times)

  • The most surprising workplace trends of 2025 (so far) (Fast Company)

  • Mastering AI is career insurance. Upskill now or fall behind (USA Today)

  • South Park Commons’ Founder Fellowship, which helps entrepreneurs start a venture-scale company by targeting support at the “-1 to 0” idea stage. Apply by August 3 here.

  • NYCEDC has released a request for proposals for a Founder Alumni Program and is seeking operators to build a dynamic, long-term network of program alumni from its entrepreneurship programs. Download the RFP and apply by August 4 here. 

  • The third annual Environmental Tech Lab, an accelerated innovation program ensuring that New Yorkers can continue to enjoy safe drinking water and a clean environment as the climate continues to change in unpredictable ways. Apply by August 8 here.

  • Fierce Foundry is hosting a five-week Investment Readiness Bootcamp designed to help early-stage female founders prepare for their first institutional raise in the next 6-18 months. Work closely with fundraising experts, financial strategists, brand builders, and active investors to sharpen your pitch, financials, and growth plan. Apply by August 22 here.

  • Precursor Ventures’ How to Raise a Pre-Seed Bootcamp, for founders new to raising venture capital looking to learn the tools and strategies to navigate a pre-seed fundraising journey. Apply by August 22 here.

  • Yale’s Computer Science Fair on September 19, featuring hundreds of students and tech companies. Companies can apply to attend by August 30 here.

  • See NYC is gathering 150 New Yorkers for a three-day summer camp-style experience to share ideas to build a better New York City. Apply here.

  • Company Ventures is hosting AI Review events, a year-long conversation series on the current and future state of AI. Submit your AI-related event for consideration here.

  • Union Square Ventures’ “usvwork” — a casual coworking day once a month for founders and builders in NYC. Apply here.

  • Forum Ventures is accepting pitches to its Forum for Founders program. The firm is investing in 30+ companies over the next three months, offering $100K and admission to its pre-seed accelerator to provide personalized GTM and sales support. Apply here.

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