Wednesday, October 22, 2025

October 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 

In today’s digest, the final mayoral debate, a cheese conveyer belt comes to town, and NYC founders driving the future of sportstech. 🏙️⚽

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  • Tonight’s the second and final NYC mayoral debate! 🗣️ Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa will face off again at 7pm before early voting starts this weekend. (City & State)

    • The debate will air in full on Spectrum News NY1 and on WNYC radio. You can also stream it here.

    • Here’s what to watch for.

  • NBA basketball is back. The Knicks tip off at MSG tonight with top-five title odds, and the Nets are looking to rebuild after disappointing last season. 🏀 (amNY)

    • Check out even more sports content in our “Today in Tech” section below. 👇

  • Still waiting on your inflation check? You’re not alone. The state’s first-ever inflation refund checks began rolling out in September, and yes, they’re taking longer than a New York minute. But don’t fret if your neighbors received one and you haven’t. They’re being sent out through November. 🤑 (Secret NYC)

    • 8.2 million New Yorkers qualify for the checks — check if you qualify here.

In other reading:

  • Bricks for flicks: NYC is a studio city thanks to a slew of new production palaces (New York Post)

  • Five New York City art shows to see right now (Hyperallergic)

  • NYC is getting its first-ever cheese conveyer-belt restaurant (Time Out New York)

Companies to Watch: SportsTech Founders Changing the Game

October is one of the best times of the year to be a sports fan: The month is jam packed with the WNBA finals, MLB playoffs, the NFL season starting to hit its stride, and NBA and NHL seasons just getting started. And for the runners out there, you have the NYC Marathon quickly approaching (Nov. 2). 🏃🏀⚾

Now let’s bring the tech side in. Sports technology is a rapidly growing industry:

  • Globally, sportstech companies raised $58 billion between 2020-2024, and $9.6 billion in 2024 alone, according to SportsTechX.

Obviously, New York City ranks among the top global sportstech hubs:

  • NYC-based sportstech companies raised $2.58 billion from 2020-2024, the second most in North America (behind Jacksonville).

  • NYC ranks No. 1 in the number of sportstech startups among all North American cities.

This month, we spoke with four NYC-based founders who are innovating to disrupt the sports industry and continue to make New York a sports destination.

Here’s a preview of what they had to say, including why they decided to build in New York:

📊 Marcus Ellison, founder of Breadcrumb, turning messy stadium data into clean, AI-powered insights:

  • “In most places, there is a single or a few industries that dominate. In New York, you see the highest success across nearly every industry… at the same event.”

🚀 Tristan Rhee, founder of Launchpoint, automating college athlete brand deals:

  • “My cofounder Adam grew up in SF, started a company in SF after college, and still wanted to move to NYC because of the energy.”

🏀 Danielle Donchetz, founder of Partake Sports, building the community backbone of women’s sports:

  • “I do my best thinking when walking, and there is so much inspiration to take in when cruising the streets of New York.”

🧑‍💻 Hannah Sorkin, founder of PlayMaker, making sponsorship management smarter:

  • “New York is the heartbeat of sports, media, and technology. It’s where partnerships are born, deals are made, and innovation thrives.”

In other reading: 

  • Google’s AI cracks a new cancer code (Decrypt) 

  • Which states love candy corn – and which hate it (Axios) 

  • Netflix goes ‘all in’ on generative AI as entertainment industry remains divided (Tech Crunch)

  • Anchor Browser, an NYC- and Tel Aviv-based developer of a cloud browser for AI agents, raised $6 million in seed funding. Blumberg Capital led the round and was joined by Gradient.

  • Estuary, an NYC-based data movement and streaming platform, raised $17 million in Series A funding. M13 led the round and was joined by Firstmark and Operator Partners.

  • Piere, an NYC-based AI-powered financial automation platform, raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding. Grand Ventures led the round and was joined by Selah Ventures, Trustage Ventures, Samvid Ventures, and Fabric VC.

  • UnifyApps, an NYC-based developer of enterprise AI operating systems, raised $50 million in Series B funding. WestBridge Capital led the round and was joined by ICONIQ and others.

  • The second annual Buildings Tech Lab, a collaboration with the Department of Buildings to advance the application of new technology to transform the delivery of public services. Apply by October 24 here.

  • nextNYC’s Checkwriters Dinner, bringing together 10-12 New York VCs with decision-making power to hear from companies looking to finish a round. Apply to pitch by October 29 here.

  • Robin Hood’s Catalyst 2026 cohort, a four-month accelerator for pre-seed social impact startups who are building technology that expands economic mobility — in areas like housing, education, health, financial access, and jobs. Apply by November 21 here.

  • The New York State Housing Finance Agency is seeking proposals from vendors to provide a technology solution to support MWBE/SDVOB compliance, goal setting, waiver tracking, reporting, and engagement across New York State. Submit your proposal by November 24 here.

  • Gutter Capital’s Elbow Grease, an eight-week accelerator for founders building applied AI in sectors that still run mostly offline like construction, real estate, energy, government, and small businesses. Apply by November 26 here.

  • HubSpot’s How You Hustle, where you and your business could be featured and receive free press exposure to their 1.5 million subscribers. Apply here.

  • Company Ventures’ Grand Central Tech Residency’s spring 2026 cohort, a 12-month residency program for founders and teams looking to build in-person in NYC. 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.

  • New York City Economic Development Corporation is re-launching the Greenlight Innovation Fund, a Request for Proposals to provide City capital funding for the development of facilities in New York City that support the Green Economy, Life Sciences, Advanced Technology and Creative Industries. Submit your proposals here.

  • Zero Irving — the Union Square tech hub home to Civic Hall — is relaunching its Workforce Development Project Fund, which awards $200,000 annually for programs that expand tech access and economic mobility for underrepresented New Yorkers, especially those in Manhattan Community District 3 (Lower East Side, East Village, Chinatown). Submit your proposal here.

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