As we countdown to NY Tech Week in just 15 days, here are 15 facts about the city's dynamic tech ecosystem.
- NYC has been a tech hub since the 1990s. Manhattan's Flatiron District has long been a home to high-tech companies, second only to Silicon Valley, which has earned the region the nickname: “Silicon Alley.”
- Did you know? Notable IPOs that have come out of the NYC tech space include companies like Etsy, Vimeo, Peloton, MongoDB, Oscar Health, and Compass.
- There are 100+ unicorns. There are at least 112 startup companies now worth upwards of $1 billion that have been founded in NY.
- The NYC tech job market is rapidly growing. In 2023, roughly 13,000 tech jobs were created, adding to a grand total of more than 369,000 jobs that is expected to keep rising.
- More tech workers are making the move to NYC. Between 2022 and 2023, NYC claimed 15% of relocating tech workers when compared to other major U.S. tech destinations like San Francisco, Austin, Boston, and Seattle.
- The AI and machine learning sector is booming. Since 2019, over 1,000 AI-related companies in the city have raised $27 billion in funding.
- But AI isn’t the only transformative tech in town. NYC tech startups are spread across a wide range of sectors like fintech, healthtech, cybersecurity, edtech, climatetech, and ecommerce—to name a few!
- Fashion is embracing cutting-edge tech. As one of the world's fashion capitals, NYC has been the catalyst for combining virtual and augmented reality with fashion. Web3 integrations, virtual runways, and AI-designed collections have all made their debuts at NY Fashion Week.
- VCs are investing heavily in NYC startups. From 2018 to 2022, tech startups received an estimated $138 billion in venture capital funding, compared to a global average of $4.6 billion.
- NY state is top three in the U.S. for life sciences VC funding. In 2022, private investors poured $2.6 billion into life sciences companies, putting NY in third place behind California and Massachusetts.
- In 2022, NY-based crypto startups were the most well-funded in the U.S. Of the $25.2 billion in global fundraising for blockchain ventures, NY-based crypto startups took in $6.5 billion.
- Female founders are finding success in the Big Apple. Women-founded startups raised $6.7 billion in new funding between January and September 2021, more than double the $3.2 billion raised in all of 2020.
- NYC entrepreneurs are incredibly diverse. About 40% of entrepreneurs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) sectors identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC).
- NYC hosts some of the largest tech events and conferences. With so many innovative people and technologies all in one place, it’s no wonder that NYC is the backdrop for tech conferences like TECHSPO, UXDX—and of course, NY Tech Week.
- Before the internet, NY was still a premiere destination for innovation. The NY World's Fair in 1939 and 1964 saw the premieres of significant technological inventions like broadcast television, color TV, and video calling machines.