Manhattan can no longer claim to be NYC’s sole tech hub. With its allure of vast office spaces and lower rent, Brooklyn has become an attractive spot for startups. To brush up on your knowledge of the community, we’ve compiled a list of some of the startups and tech companies that have set up shop in the city’s most populous borough.
Top Companies to Work for in Brooklyn
- Atomic
- Zipari
- Work & Co
- Vice Media
- Red Antler
- Kickstarter
- Gimlet Media
- Etsy
- Songkick
- Back Market
Top Startups and Tech Companies in Brooklyn
Industry: Food, Logistics
Smallhold is returning food production and locally-sourced mushrooms to communities across the U.S. While the company boasts macro facilities, it has also built a network of numerous mini-farms. Restaurants, grocery stores, and other local businesses can choose to become mushroom-growing sites. As a result, customers can find freshly-grown mushrooms right in their own neighborhood.
Industry: Real Estate
Joining the fold of tech companies renovating how we connect with our communities, Venn is a platform designed to help users get engaged with their neighborhoods, find ideal housing and build networks with people in their area. Their real estate search software allows users to discover apartments that meet their needs by making it easy to search for both shared and private spaces, guiding people in navigating subletting or subleasing with fewer complications.
Industry: Greentech
About: Back Market addresses growing concerns over e-waste by offering a platform where customers can purchase high-quality used technology. Companies that sell products on Back Market undergo thorough screenings to guarantee quality. This way, consumers can secure high-quality refurbished technology while reducing the number of devices in the trash.
Industry: Healthtech
Zipari offers the first insurance-based Customer Experience Platform and CRM Solution. Partnering with Salesforce, the platform improves interactions between health insurance carriers and customers.
Industry: Edtech
About: Atomic works with publishers and edtech companies to produce digital products and software that helps people learn the fundamentals and intricacies of reading. The company’s team of engineers, technologists, designers and content managers pair with clients to design custom apps that best meet their students’ reading goals, with the ability to discover books, read at their own pace, and track and assess reading progress all featured within Atomic’s products.
Industry: e-commerce
Mouth Foods connects people to new and delicious "indie food" (read: handmade, small-batch offerings made by people, not companies), helping food makers grow their business.
Industry: Foodtech
HowGood is all about educating consumers on what they're eating. It has partnered with food scientists and farmers to provide a true look into the origin of our food. From pasta to produce, HowGood collects data from over 350 sources that oversee food production from source to store, and rates the items with a “good, better, best” system.
Industry: IoT
KISI (kē-zē) is an access control system designed for commercial spaces. KISI allows you to manage office security from your smartphone with features like digital keys, access restriction settings, multi-location management and key usage history.
Industry: Sports
SportsRecruits simplifies the college recruiting process for student athletes. Built by former athletes, the platform boasts comprehensive student-athlete profiles and a messaging system connecting athletes to every college coach in the nation.
Industry: Digital Media
Mind Body Green is a digital media company focusing on the pillars of wellness: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and environmental. The company offers an array of free content, video classes and live events espousing these concepts.
Industry: Cloud
MiMedia has created a personal cloud source where individuals can keep their photos, videos, music and documents all in one accessible place. Whether on a mobile device, tablet or computer, users can easily upload, organize and manage all of their digital possessions.
Industry: Digital Media / News & Entertainment
Vice Media is media source providing original content 24 hours a day for both international and domestic news, pop culture, sports, music and tech. Launching in 1994 as a “punk zine,” the company has since extended its grasp to become a leading global source in 30 countries.
Industry: e-commerce
Etsy is an online marketplace where creative entrepreneurs can sell their handmade, vintage and unique items all over the world. The Brooklyn-born startup was founded in 2005 and has grown to support 1.7 million active sellers and 27.1 million active buyers.
Industry: Adtech
Huge is no stranger to Brooklyn. Founded in 1999, the company has now grown to 14 locations around the world. The adtech company focuses on working in small teams and partnering with clients to build the best brands possible.
Industry: Enterprise Web
Kickstarter helps creators of all kinds make their ideas a reality with the help of crowdfunding. Founded in 2009, the startup has had more than 10 million people back the new and creative projects of entrepreneurs with its platform.
Industry: Technology
goTenna allows you to stay connected, even when you’re off the grid. The device uses smart protocols and radio waves to allow access to GPS and text even when there’s no service.
Industry: Digital Agency
What they do: Work & Co launches digital products for top brands. They're a technology and design partner for Google, Epic Games, IKEA, Apple, Lyft and more.
Industry: Real Estate
With Nooklyn people can connect with roommates, find apartments and discover more in the part of Brooklyn they want to live in. Additionally, the company will be launching a new service allowing users to pay their rent right on the Nooklyn website and iOS app.
Industry: Healthtech
Ordering prescription medicine shouldn’t be a hassle, so Medly is streamlining the patient experience. As a digital pharmacy, Medly enables patients to complete orders through call, text, or a mobile application. Once someone has submitted their request, they can track their shipment with the Medly mobile app. Free, same-day delivery creates an even more frictionless experience for Medly customers.
Industry: Transportation
Motivate helps bring innovative bike transport to cities. As the global bike share leader, the company works with governments and corporations all over the world to bring an eco-friendly form of transportation to major cities. Motivate helps with planning, operating, marketing and finding partnerships for each city’s bike share program.
Industry: Music
Tunecore helps musicians distribute their music on sites like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Music. The company allows the artist to maintain complete ownership of their music, simply helping them collect the sales revenue and royalties they're entitled to.
Industry: Digital Media
Gimlet Media is a digital media company specializing in high-end narrative podcasts. The company produces 11 podcasts to date, covering topics like crime, science and even one about the trials and tribulations of being a startup.
Industry: Adtech
Big Spaceship is a digital agency that helps businesses grow and thrive by uniting product design, brand communications, social connections and content. Founded in 2000, the company has worked with BMW, YouTube, Samsung, West Elm, Capital One, Spotify and Google.
Industry: Edtech
Amplify is a data-driven, digital education and curriculum source for K-12 students. Amplify has supplied digital learning support to more than 200,000 educators and three million students in 50 states.
Industry: Green/Cleantech
Biolite began with the idea of a camping stove that works without the use of fossil fuels, but the idea has since evolved into a sustainable home cooking device that cuts emissions by more than 90 percent and fuel consumption in half. In addition to providing the means to cook, Biolite products also have the ability to charge devices and power LED lights.
Industry: Cloud
Paperspace rents virtual desktops. The platform enables a simple Macbook or Chromebook to work with complex programs for business or personal use. Instead of purchasing new hardware, users can access all of their data from any device on the cloud, which includes constant backups, powerful processing and shared storage.
Industry: Digital Media, News & Entertainment
With the goal of giving consumers more control over their TV lineup, Philo has crafted a customizable entertainment experience. Customers can access over 60 channels and stream countless shows and movies with the Philo package. Plus, this content is available in numerous formats, including Mac web browsers, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. As a result, customers can watch the content they love in the setting where they feel most comfortable.
Industry: Healthtech
Credsimple provides a SaaS solution to create a simplified credentialing process and improved provider of data management for the healthcare industry.
Industry: Fintech, Human Resources
Nowsta implements powerful machine learning technology to automate many of the processes that businesses use to manage their workforce operations and finances. The company's one-stop platform offers a paperless, centralized option for enterprises to manage scheduling, email integration and payroll operations, helping enterprise leaders save money and time on human resources housekeeping.
Industry: Cybersecurity
Trail of Bits is a consulting firm with a service portfolio that covers software assurance, security engineering and research and development. It incubated a product called iVerify that supports mobile device security through features for threat detection and enterprise team reporting and launched as its own company in 2023. Trail of Bits operates remotely but also has its roots planted firmly in Brooklyn.
Industry: Adtech
Red Antler helps companies build brands through research, product design, digital experience, art direction and brand activation. Some of its clients have included Casper, Zagat, Foursquare and Vevo.
Industry: Music
Songkick is a ticket selling platform and database accessed by more than 12 million fans each month. Artists using Songkick’s services include Adele, John Legend, Mumford & Sons and Metallica. Though based in Brooklyn, Songkick also calls London, Nashville and Los Angeles home.
Industry: Consumer Web
Makerbot is a leader in 3D printing, being one of the first companies to offer affordable and accessible 3D printers. The startup also operates Thingiverse, the largest 3D printing community in the world.
Industry: Healthtech
About: Founded in 2017, Cityblock Health has been working to bring a combination of primary care, behavioral care and social services to traditionally underserved populations. Cityblock Health uses a digital, user-friendly platform to connect its users to the services they need most, in their area and on their schedule — not two weeks from now and in an unfamiliar Midtown office, as is all too often the case when New Yorkers try to book a doctor's appointment.
