Winter Tech Watch II: 16 New York City Companies to Track

It’s time for cold hands and warm hearts as we celebrate the season with friends and loved ones and ready to ring in the new year. You may be waiting with bated breath to attend the Time Square Ball Drop. Or perhaps you have reservations at the Panorama Room, preferring to take in the city’s festivities from the comfortable vantage of Roosevelt Island’s Graduate hotel rooftop. 

Regardless of how you celebrate, the impending end of 2022 may be an opportunity to reevaluate your career goals and catch up on some of the local tech scene’s movers and shakers. Built In New York City has curated a list of 16 companies — many of which are working to add breadth, depth and inclusion to the company’s culture, tech stacks and benefits. 

Though each unique, these 16 New York-based companies all have one thing in common: They are innovative, people-first organizations with intriguing perks that warrant the consideration of those looking to make a career move in 2023. 

 

 

 

What pymetrics does: Pymetrics is a soft skills platform for hiring and talent management. By employing data-driven behavioral insights and audited AI, the platform works to create an efficient and fair hiring process, increasing diversity and retention and reducing time to hire. 

 

 

In the news: Pymetrics recently partnered with Harver, a hiring solution company boasting 35 years of experience and a portfolio of more than 1,300 customers including Booking.com, Peloton, Valvoline and McDonalds.

“Harver and pymetrics have an incredible opportunity to reinvent the way talent decisions are made by creating a more effective and unbiased process across the talent lifecycle,” Frida Polli, CEO and founder of pymetrics, said in a press release. “I’m thrilled about the unmatched value that our combined teams can deliver to our customers and excited to continue building upon our shared vision to unleash people’s true potential and then put it to work.”

 

 

 

What Grow Therapy does: Grow Therapy’s platform allows patients to find therapists covered by their insurance and helps therapists launch tech-driven, in-network practices while handling the administrative work of accepting insurance claims.

 

 

Investing in employees: “Grow Therapy believes in reinvesting in their employees, and in the development of their careers,” Jessica Kim, provider growth associate, told Built In this June. “A great example of this commitment is the monthly education stipend that is offered to the employees. I’m passionate about continued education, so with this stipend program, I can ensure to perform at the top of my profession.”

 

 

 

What Prove does: A digital identity authentication company, Prove helps more than 1,000 enterprise customers — including banks, insurers, brokerages and technology companies — enable effortless customer experiences.

 

 

Award-winning culture: This October, Prove took home three of Comparably’s “best company” awards this year, earning accolades in the categories of perks and benefits, happiness and compensation.

“This is the second year in a row that Prove was named one of the highest-rated small to midsize companies by Comparably, a leading workplace culture and compensation monitoring site,” the company announced in a statement. “Prove’s rapidly growing team of enthusiastic and passionate digital identity experts is by far the company’s strongest asset. This recognition from Comparably is a testament to the entire team’s hard work and dedication.”

 

 

 

 

What Uniswap Labs does: Uniswap Labs is a decentralized finance startup that created the Uniswap Interface and contributes to an open-source protocol for providing liquidity and trading ERC20 tokens on Ethereum.

 

 

In the news: This October, Uniswap Labs announced a $165 million Series B funding round, a bright spot for a DeFi community in the depths of crypto winter.

“Uniswap Labs is bringing the powerful simplicity and security that has defined the Uniswap Protocol to even more people across the world by investing in our web app and developer tools, launching NFTs, moving into mobile — and more,” CEO Hayden Adams said in a press release. “As Uniswap Labs focuses on products, a much broader ecosystem continues to grow and thrive beyond what any one company can do on their own.”

 

 

 

What Spot & Tango does: A health and wellness brand dedicated to delivering high-quality fresh food to pets, Spot & Tango offers personalized meal plans — specifically tailored to your dog’s weight, activity level and lifestyle — delivered direct-to-consumer.

 

 

In the news: This March, Spot & Tango announced a $38.5 million Series B round led by Valor Equity Partners. The news came just two months after the company announced plans to invest $20 million in its first manufacturing plant.

“Spot & Tango is building a brand that meets growing consumer preferences for pet health and wellness, convenience and personalization,” Jon Shulkin, partner and co-president of Valor Equity Partners, said in a press release. “The company is a pioneer in new product development, creating solutions that solve real problems for pet parents.” 

 

 

 

What Firework does: Firework’s digital transformation and engagement platform provides more than 600 direct-to-consumer brands retailers, and media publishers worldwide with tools like shoppable video, live streaming commerce and monetization capabilities.

 

 

Commitment to diversity: “We are committed to ensuring that every person, especially women in engineering, get the same exposure and opportunities as others,” Deborah Vue, chief people officer, told Built In this July. “This means providing various support initiatives. The first ERG we launched was the Women at Work ERG, and we have seen tremendous participation from women engineers.” 

 

 

 

What Rightpoint does: A digital consultancy for businesses focusing on customer experience, Rightpoint helps businesses launch creative technology-based initiatives and accelerate digital transformation through a human-centric lens. Rightpoint is a Genpact company.

 

 

In the news: This January, Rightpoint parent Genpact announced plans to acquire Hoodoo Digital. The acquisition is intended to “expand Rightpoint’s capabilities to help clients to manage their content, commerce, and marketing operations across the enterprise, driving smarter insights and more strategic impact.”

“Embracing a connected ecosystem of data and content is the key to creating the best experiences, whether for customers or employees,” said Ron Shamah, CEO, Rightpoint, in a press release. “Hoodoo Digital’s deep knowledge of Adobe solutions is a critical unlock to advance Rightpoint’s leadership in delivering superior experience-led transformation.”

 

 

 

 

What Cherre does: A data management and analytics platform for the real estate industry, Cherre allows its clients to connect all their real estate data and make it available to the entire organization to inform better investment, management and underwriting decisions. 

 

 

In the news: This November, Cherre announced a new partnership with national real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital. 

“Both Clear Capital and Cherre are devoted to granting our customers the highest-quality analytics,” said James Marshall, director of real estate analytics products at Clear Capita, said in a press release. “By providing seamless integration between various platforms, customers are guaranteed accurate and robust underwriting tools that drive smarter, data-driven decisions for acquisitions and property management.”

 

 

 

What Botify does: Powered by AI and a proprietary unified data model, Botify’s enterprise software helps brands turn organic search into an efficient, measurable and sustainable channel for traffic and revenue growth.

 

 

In the news: This October, Botify announced a partnership with online visibility management SaaS platform Semrush.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with a market leader like Semrush to deliver to our customers the utmost value in their data,” Christophe Frenet, chief product officer at Botify, said in a press release. “As search spend continues to increase, this integration allows digital marketers to stop losing precious time switching between several apps and utilize one unified platform to gain real-time, competitive visibility into organic search performance — informing an even more powerful data-driven SEO strategy.”

 

 

 

What Twill does: Through its flagship product Sequences — fully configurable, scientifically designed, digital-first solutions that support the care journey for specific medical conditions — Twill is working to shorten the gap between health needs and care. Twill’s partners include pharmaceutical companies, health plans, large-scale employers and the people they represent. 

 

 

In the news: This November, Twill announced a partnership with e-Psychiatry to offer telepsychiatry and teletherapy services as part of Twill’s Sequences. 

“We see partnering with e-Psychiatry as an opportunity to turn the patient journey into a continuum by increasing the velocity of accessing care and breadth of treatment options for our higher acuity patients,” Chief Medical Officer Murray Zucker said in a press release. 

 

 

 

 

What Mantra Health does: Mantra Health is a digital mental health clinic working to improve young peoples’ mental healthcare access through clinical services, software and design. The company partners with universities and colleges across the country — including MIT, Cornell and the University of Minnesota — to offer students comprehensive treatment services for various mental health conditions.

 

 

Bringing the remote closer: “The key to creating connection in a hybrid remote workplace is interaction,” Allie Schwartz, VP of people, told Built In this May. “There’s quite a difference between everyone sitting in a room watching a presentation versus working together on a task, or having an opportunity to learn about one another. When you think about what’s lost from in-person lunch or coffee dates, it’s those small moments when we get to share ourselves. That can absolutely be done remotely, it just requires a bit more planning and creativity.”

 

 

 

What Odeko does: Odeko provides mobile ordering and supply chain management software for coffee shops, cafes and other small businesses. With an all-in-one customizable dashboard, Odeko helps its partners save time and increase revenue and lower expenses by leveraging aggregated buying power and consolidating shipping.

 

 

A desire to learn and create: “We strive to build a team that prides itself on the desire to seek to understand, which leads to autonomy within the team and the ability to make decisions quickly and seamlessly,” VP of Engineering Davin Chew told Built In this September. “Our engineers question assumptions and love working hand in hand with product, data, operations and design to create things that our customers love.” 

 

 

 

 

What Pointcard does: PointCard is a mobile finance app maker offering debit card and credit card rewards. The company is backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures as well as Y Combinator. 

 

 

In the news: This October, PointCard provider Point announced plans to rebrand as Atlas and introduce the Atlas Card.

“Over the past few months, we’ve spent countless hours talking to customers and reflecting on our own experiences to guide us in shaping the future of PointCard,” the company said in a statement on its website. “It became clear that we needed to think from first principles to bring you an experience that goes far beyond simply adding more rewards, a basic metal card or more airport lounge passes. Atlas Card is the next evolution in our journey to create the most unparalleled spending tool ever conceived.”

 

 

 

What Canoe does: Using cloud-based machine learning technology technology, Canoe automates document and data workflows related to alternative investments, such as private equity and managed futures. Canoe’s tools turn complex documents into actionable intelligence and empower allocators to unlock new efficiencies for their business. 

 

 

An increasingly expert team: “We’ve been blessed to have tremendous success over the past few years,” Mark Ferri, enterprise solutions consultant, told Built In this June. “A large part of that is due to the many new team members that have joined Canoe. I love teaching them the technical knowledge of our platform and making them experts. In fact, one of our company values is  ‘win together.’ I always try to emphasize that before we can help our clients, we need to become experts ourselves. Instilling domain and technical knowledge in each new employee has helped us become trusted advisors for our clients. I’ve certainly learned that everyone benefits from this elevated standard of work ethic.”

 

 

 

 

What Equativ does: Through its independent adtech platform, Equativ offers buy- and sell-side adtech solutions for advertisers, publishers, broadcast operators, sales houses and data providers. 

 

 

In the news: This November, Equativ announced strategic hires to help facilitate the company’s continued growth. The company appointed James Grant to the role of SVP and head of agency and enterprise CTV partnerships and Emir Teffaha as SVP and head of demand, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“I’m looking forward to bringing the company’s leading programmatic solutions to market, developing our strategic offerings and supporting local market sales teams,” Grant said in a press release. “Drawing on my industry knowledge and Equativ’s product solutions, I aim to drive deeper partnerships with key advertising groups, focusing on the digital video and TV space.”

 

 

 

What Templafy does: Templafy’s SaaS solutions connect content across all company-owned platforms and deliver that content directly to the end-user in an intuitive workflow. The company services more than two million users worldwide with its next-gen document generation platform. 

 

 

A team with heart: “At Templafy, our culture is rooted in belongingness, which means all colleagues are encouraged to speak up and be heard,” Senior Talent Acquisition Partner Heather Harvison told Built In this February. “One of the pillars of belongingness is our weekly ‘heartbeat’ meetings, which allow team members to connect in a casual and open setting. Our entire organization sets aside time each week for these meetings, showing just how much we believe in belongingness and collaboration to create a safe space for every employee.”