2020 has certainly been a whirlwind. Between the global pandemic, a massive racial justice movement and political upheaval in the United States, tech companies around the world have had to confront unprecedented challenges and get creative to keep their businesses afloat.
This was certainly true in NYC. Over the last several months, the city’s tech leaders have had to innovate and persevere in ways they never have before. And new startups have emerged, potentially changing the way industries like healthcare, e-commerce and real estate operate forever.
Built In has been there through all of it, publishing dozens of stories about how NYC startups have tackled the numerous struggles thrown their way this year. In a lot of ways, we’re ready to turn the page and ring in 2021. But before we do that, we wanted to look back once more on all that’s been accomplished in this historic year, and share five of our most-viewed NYC tech news stories from 2020.
#5. Talkspace donated free therapy to healthcare workers. Back in March, when the United States was in the midst of its first surge in novel coronavirus cases, mental-health startup Talkspace announced it would be providing free teletherapy services to all frontline social workers, nurses and doctors. This offering included unlimited text, video and audio messaging with licensed therapists through the platform, with the aim of helping these workers cope with the mental toll of the pandemic.
#4. Mental healthcare platform Spring Health raised $22M. Spring Health, another NYC-based startup offering teletherapy, sets itself apart from the pack with its data-driven approach to mental-health care. Users simply fill out their information, and the platform screens for various conditions including depression, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. These results are then used to pair the user with a corresponding mental-health professional. The company said it planned to use the fresh funding, announced in January, to scale its product. Spring Health later raised an additional $76 million, announced in November, to fuel its growth.
#3. Vast Data became a unicorn and made a hiring push. This Series C, announced in April, brought Vast Data’s total valuation to more than $1.2 billion, making it NYC’s newest tech unicorn at the time. In a nutshell, the company aims to change the way data is stored, replacing hard drives with its all-flash storage system so that the process is more efficient and affordable. Organizations like Harvard Medical School and the U.S. National Institute of Health have used Vast’s platform to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
#2. A16z-backed Breakr aims to democratize the music industry. Brothers Anthony and Ameer Brown created Breakr, an online marketplace where social media influencers, artists and DJs can connect with each other and break new music together. The goal is to give this community more agency over their brand, especially influencers of color and micro-influencers. Recently, top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz named Breakr as just one of seven startups to receive support from its Talent x Opportunity Fund, which was created for entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds. In a year that sparked a lot of innovation and creativity, Breakr is surely one of NYC tech’s most exciting launches of 2020.
#1. New unicorn Ro raised $200M, plans to hire 70 engineers. Ro was created to change a healthcare system that co-founder Saman Rahmanian describes as “inefficient, inaccessible and expensive,” by operating a digital health clinic that helps treat everything from eczema to menopause. The company also delivers more than 500 generic medications for just $5 a pop. This model appears to be working, particularly amid the pandemic. Over the last 15 months, Ro tripled its valuation to $1.5 billion and said it planned to use the fresh funding, unveiled in August, to grow its team, namely its engineering department.
