🗽 New York’s VC Scene is Changing

New York has always been the focal point of the U.S. as the city that never sleeps. It is the fashion capital, the finance capital, the media capital, and more. But in terms of tech and venture capital, it has always lagged behind its west coast counterparts. The most valuable US tech companies are all located on the west coast, and startup funding has always been concentrated in California. 

The year 2021 may change this paradigm. We’ve already seen $7.5BN invested into 270 New York City-based companies, putting NYC on track to have a record year if we continue seeing investments at this pace. In comparison, 2020 altogether saw $15.5BN poured into 1,399 companies in New York. Here’s a quick introduction to some of the private companies that have seen record funding rounds this year.

Yotpo offers an eCommerce marketing platform designed to give brands the ability to gain and retain customers through the integration of data-driven solutions for Loyalty, SMS Marketing, Reviews, and more.
Last round: Round F $230MM  
Founded: 2011
Founders: Omri Cohen and Tomer Tagrin

Squarespace offers a website building service and an e-commerce platform that enables users to build a brand and transact with their customers. 
Last round: Round D $300M
Founded: 2003
Founder: Anthony Casalena

Cedar is a patient engagement and payment platform for hospitals, health systems, and medical groups that elevates the total patient experience beyond clinical care. 
Last round: Round D $200M
Founded: 2016
Founders: Arel Lidow, Florian Otto, and Kareem Zaki

Ro offers end-to-end medical services that target 20 conditions, including sexual health, smoking cessation, and hair loss, enabling users to get in touch with a physician by video and access free medication delivery and personalized treatment.
Last round: Round D $500M
Founded: 2017
Founders: Rob Schutz, Saman Rahmanian, and Zachariah Reitano

K Health is a data-driven primary care application that uses AI to deliver virtual personalized primary care. 
Last round: Round E $132MM 
Founded: 2016
Founders: Adam Singolda, Allon Bloch, Israel Roth, and Ran Shaul

Cockroach Labs develops an open-source database designed for building global, scalable cloud services that can survive disasters.
Last round: Round E $160MM  
Founded: 2015
Founders: Ben Darnell, Peter Mattis, and Spencer Kimball

Chainalysis provides data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. 
Last round: Round D $100MM
Founded: 2014
Founders: Jan Moller, Jonathan Levin, and Michael Gronager 

Attentive Mobile is a personalized mobile messaging platform that helps brands and organizations connect with consumers.
Last round: Round D $130MM
Founded: 2016
Founders: Andrew Jones, Brian Long, and Ethan Lo

Aside from mega-round funding, NYC-headquartered companies are also going public. Insurance provider Oscar Health went public a few weeks ago at a value of $7.9BN, and Compass went public last Thursday at a value of $9.7BN, although they downsized their IPO just before listing. 
All eyes are now on digital business automation provider UiPath, set to IPO with a valuation of $20BN after raising a mega-round of funding of $750MM in February.