The one where eChai lit up the Mr Purple Rooftop Bar with founders in New York City
Meanwhile, across eChai
Wemimo Abbey, Samir Goel
Founded 2018, Esusu helps renters build credit by reporting on-time rent payments to the major bureaus, covering ~5M rental units across all 50 states. Valued at $1.2B (SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Serena Venture...
Gaurav Misra, Dwight Churchill 🇮🇳
Founded by Indian-origin founder Gaurav Misra (ex-Snap design lead), Captions is an AI video-creation platform (AI avatars, editing, dubbing) with 10M+ creators. Raised a $60M Series C in July 2024 led by In...
Erik Bernhardsson, Akshat Bubna 🇮🇳
Founded 2021 by ex-Spotify/Better CTO Erik Bernhardsson and Indian-origin ex-Scale engineer Akshat Bubna, Modal is a serverless AI-infrastructure platform giving developers instant GPU compute for inference/...
Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz, Kevin Ryan (CEO Dev Ittycheria 🇮🇳)
NYC-founded and HQ'd public database company now central to the AI stack: Atlas Vector Search enables semantic search/RAG on the same platform. Acquired embeddings/reranking startup Voyage AI (2025) to nativ...
Ali Hussain, Rebecca Schwartz, Deepak Bapat 🇮🇳
Founded 2023, Tabs uses AI agents to automate B2B revenue/accounts-receivable workflows (contract-to-cash, billing, collections) for finance teams; Indian-origin co-founder/CTO Deepak Bapat. Raised a $55M Se...
Sidd Seethepalli, Noa Flaherty, Akash Sharma 🇮🇳
Founded 2023 (YC W23) by MIT engineers Sidd Seethepalli (ex-Quora ML) and Akash Sharma (ex-McKinsey) plus Noa Flaherty (ex-DataRobot), Vellum is a NYC dev platform for building, testing, evaluating and deplo...
Jeremy Allaire, Sean Neville
Issuer of USDC (2nd-largest stablecoin, ~$60B+ cap), Circle moved its global HQ to One World Trade Center in NYC ahead of its June 2025 NYSE IPO (CRCL), which priced at a ~$6.9B valuation and surged 600%+ wi...
Tyler Winklevoss, Cameron Winklevoss
Founded 2014, Gemini is a NYDFS-regulated crypto exchange + custody + stablecoin (GUSD) + rewards-card platform holding $21B+ in assets. IPO'd on Nasdaq (GEMI) Sept 2025 at a $3.3B valuation, popping 14% on ...
Dee Choubey, Chee Mun Foong
Founded 2013 by Indian-American CEO Dee Choubey, MoneyLion is an AI-powered consumer-finance + embedded-finance platform serving ~18M customers. Public via SPAC (NYSE: ML), it was acquired by Gen Digital (No...
Gal Krubiner, Yahav Yulzari, Avital Pardo
Founded 2016, Pagaya is an AI-driven credit / lending-infrastructure network that underwrites consumer loans for banks and lenders. Public on Nasdaq (PGY); reached GAAP profitability in 2025, swinging from a...
Tommy Nicholas, Charles Hearn, Laura Spiekerman
Founded 2015, Alloy is the leading identity-decisioning / fraud + KYC platform for banks and fintechs, connecting 160+ data sources via API. It raised $52M (Lightspeed, Avenir) at a $1.55B valuation and repo...
Jon Stein (Sarah Levy, CEO)
Founded 2008, Betterment is the largest independent robo-advisor / digital wealth platform, crossing $65B+ AUM by late 2025. It has expanded into 401(k), advisor (RIA) and high-net-worth offerings. A definin...
Ankur Jain
Founded 2021 by Indian-American entrepreneur Ankur Jain, Bilt is a rewards + payments network that lets renters earn points on rent (and now mortgage, utilities) redeemable with airlines, hotels and merchant...
Gil Mandelzis, Igor Teleshevsky, Tom Glocer
Founded 2017, Capitolis is a capital-markets-tech platform that optimizes balance sheets and unlocks capital across banks via netting, compression and a novel capital marketplace. Raised a $110M Series D at ...
Michael Gronager, Jonathan Levin
Founded 2014, Chainalysis is the leading blockchain-data / crypto-compliance platform serving banks, exchanges and governments. Valued at ~$8.6B (Accel, Benchmark) with ~$87M revenue in 2025; it raised a Ser...
Founded 2003 by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham, USV is the archetype of the thesis-driven NYC fund, backing networked platforms and marketplaces. Portfolio includes Twitter, Etsy, Coinbase, Twilio, MongoDB, and Duolingo. An early and conti...
Founded by Joshua Kushner in 2010, Thrive invests across internet, software, and tech-enabled companies from seed to growth. Notable bets include Instagram, Stripe, GitHub, Warby Parker, and a lead position in OpenAI. Raised roughly $5B ...
A global software-focused VC and private-equity firm managing tens of billions, specializing in scale-up ScaleUp software companies. Portfolio spans Shopify, Twitter, Wix, Monday.com, Qualtrics, and JFrog. Provides multi-stage capital an...
A crossover hedge fund and VC known for its aggressive, fast-moving late-stage and growth checks globally. Backed Stripe, ByteDance, Databricks, and hundreds of others during the 2020-21 boom; also a heavy investor in India (Flipkart his...
One of NYC's most active early-stage funds, founded by Ken Lerer, Ben Lerer, and Eric Hippeau. Strong consumer and brand DNA with bets on Warby Parker, Glossier, Allbirds, Casper, and Axios. Leads seed and Series A rounds with a heavy NY...
Early-stage NYC firm known for community-building (Data Driven NYC, CTO Summit) as much as capital. Portfolio includes Shopify, Pinterest, DraftKings, Airbnb (early), Ada, and Synthesia. Led by Rick Heitzmann and Matt Turck; a cornerston...
84,000 sq ft venture platform and hardtech community inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, opened 2016, combining labs, machine shops, office space and a membership community for 250+ growth-stage startups. Runs Innovation and Venture Studios f...
New York arm of the global Techstars network, a 13-week mentorship-driven accelerator run by Techstars. Focuses on FinTech, enterprise SaaS, health, PropTech and other sectors where NYC has enterprise and financial-institution density. C...
NYC's largest and longest-running technology accelerator and early-stage VC fund, founded in 2010 by Murat Aktihanoglu, Jonathan Axelrod and Charlie Kemper. Runs two four-month, industry-generalist programs a year, investing $150K on a 6...
New York venture studio and VC firm founded in 2007 by Kevin Ryan (the 'Godfather of NYC tech'), operating an in-house company-building model across healthcare, technology, robotics and impact. AlleyCorp originates the idea, hires the te...
Company Ventures runs the Grand Central Tech (GCT) Residency, a year-long, no-equity, no-rent program for pre-idea to seed founders, housed in Facebook's former NY headquarters overlooking Grand Central. Provides talent recruiting, corpo...
Betaworks is a 15-year NYC studio and pre-seed/seed investor (early home of Giphy, Bitly, TweetDeck, Dots; later backer of Hugging Face and Stability AI). Its thematic accelerator 'Camp' runs 12-week cohorts of 8-12 companies twice a yea...
WeWork, founded in NYC in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, operates the city's largest coworking footprint with dozens of Manhattan and Brooklyn locations. Its startup-incubator arm WeWork Labs launched in 2011 at 175 Varick St ...
Premium coworking and flexible-office operator founded in 2012 by Jamie Hodari and Justin Stewart; entered NYC in 2015 (starting in Brooklyn) and relocated its HQ to Manhattan. Runs multiple NYC locations popular with startups and small ...
20,000 sq ft coworking and incubation hub in DUMBO for media and tech entrepreneurs, opened 2013 as a partnership between IFP (later Gotham Film & Media), the Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment and NYCEDC. Combines co-working, a 72-...
Co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, the fashion-rental pioneer that became one of the first female-founded "unicorns" (~$1B valuation) and later went public (NASDAQ: RENT). A defining figure of NYC's wome...
Founder (now Executive Chairwoman) of Glossier, the content-to-community beauty brand she started in 2014 out of the Into the Gloss blog. Raised a $100M Series D in 2019 at a ~$1.2B valuation, becoming a fem...
Founder/CEO of Maven Clinic (2014), the first US women's-and-family-health startup to reach unicorn status. In Oct 2024 closed $125M at a $1.7B valuation; covers ~17M lives via employers/health plans (Amazon...
Co-founder/CEO of Parade, the Gen-Z underwear-and-lingerie brand she launched at 21 after dropping out of Columbia (co-founder Jack DeFuria). Daughter of Colombian immigrants; raised ~$8M in year one and sol...
First-generation Indian-American founder (Executive Chairman, former CEO) of ClassPass, the fitness/wellness-booking marketplace founded in 2013 that hit unicorn status in 2020 before its 2021 acquisition by...
Indian-origin serial founder (Long Island–raised, Cornell BS, Harvard MBA) who co-founded clean-beauty brand Wander Beauty (2015, with model Lindsay Ellingson); Wander was acquired by Nameless CPG in Feb 202...
The historic birthplace and still-densest startup corridor: prestige B2B SaaS, AI and fintech infrastructure, from Ramp and Datadog to the AI firms signing new Flatiron leases.
12 companies 4 investors 1 coworking
Strong in Healthtech, Fintech
The consumer and creative heart of the ecosystem: loft-office stock that draws D2C, media, marketplace and adtech companies, plus a deep design and product talent pool.
9 companies 3 investors 2 coworking
Strong in Consumer brands, D2C
More tech companies than any other Brooklyn area, driven by cheaper rents and waterfront talent: creative tech, hardware, and lifestyle and D2C brands, plus Consensys and crypto.
14 companies 4 investors 3 coworking
Strong in Consumer brands, D2C
Answers about the New York startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in New York look like?
It is the world's #2 startup ecosystem and the place where tech meets Wall Street. Its strength is applied verticals: the deepest fintech market in the US, enterprise SaaS and developer tools, adtech and media, fashion and beauty D2C, healthtech and biotech, and proptech and insurtech. The vertical pages and Founder Circuit above map who is building what.
Where do founders network in New York City?
At meetups, demo nights and dinners far more than at conferences. eChai runs free, open founder gatherings in New York, small and candid, with an India to New York flavour. Beyond eChai there is a thick layer of communities, from Startup Grind NYC and NY Tech Meetup to the diaspora networks, all listed in the communities section below. The simplest first step is to show up to an upcoming event.
Which are the top AI startups in New York?
New York's AI wave is applied: Runway and generative video, ElevenLabs' voice models, Hebbia's enterprise search for finance and law, Modal and Hugging Face on the infrastructure side, and EliseAI in real estate. See the AI, Generative AI and AI agents vertical pages above for the full, filterable list.
Why is New York the top city for fintech?
Because the customers are next door. NYC is the number one US fintech venture market, with 1,550+ active fintech startups and 54 fintech unicorns, from Ramp and Betterment to Bilt and Clear Street, and it owned the 2025 crypto IPOs in Circle, Gemini and Galaxy. The Fintech and Crypto vertical pages above list them by type.
Who are the Indian founders in New York?
A meaningful share of the city's companies are Indian-founded or Indian-led, from Ankur Jain at Bilt and Dee Choubey at MoneyLion to Movable Ink, Sprinklr, Captions and Payal Kadakia at ClassPass. The Diaspora tab above maps that cluster, and lists the India-linked networks, TiE New York and the IIT pitch scene, that eChai connects into.
Who are the active VCs and angel investors in New York?
New York hosts USV, Thrive, Insight, Tiger and FirstMark, alongside a deep seed and cross-border bench, including diaspora funds like Nihal Mehta's Eniac and Anu Duggal's Female Founders Fund. The investors section above lists firms by type, including the India-linked ones.
Which accelerators and incubators are in New York?
Techstars NYC anchors the region, alongside ERA, AlleyCorp, Newlab and HAX, the Cornell Tech spinout engine on Roosevelt Island, and NYCEDC's civic programs. The incubators and coworking section above lists them by type.
How do I find a co-founder in New York?
Go where founders already gather. Accelerators like Techstars run co-founder matching, but most pairings start informally at meetups, demo nights and dinners. Come to a few eChai New York events, meet people building adjacent things, and the conversations tend to find their own way to co-founder fit.
How do I join the startup community in New York as an Indian founder?
eChai is free and open, and the NY chapter is built around the India to New York bridge. Pick an upcoming event above, RSVP and walk in, no application or fee. It is one of the most natural on-ramps for an Indian founder landing in New York to meet both diaspora founders and the wider ecosystem, alongside TiE NY and the IIT pitch scene.
What are the best startup events in New York this week?
The upcoming events block above is live: RSVP to the next eChai New York gathering. Beyond eChai, the city runs NY Tech Week (presented by a16z, in June), New York FinTech Week, FinovateFall and a constant stream of meetups and demo nights, listed in the communities section.
New to the New York startup scene? Start here.
eChai runs free, open founder gatherings in New York, small and candid, and connects the India to New York founder bridge alongside TiE NY and the IIT pitch scene. No membership, no fee, just show up. RSVP to the next one and meet the people building here.
See upcoming New York events
