32 NYC Companies to Watch This Spring

New York City is in bloom, from the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Gardens and the Macy’s Flower Show in Herald Square to cherry blossoms and native flora in Central Park. 

Ditch your parkas for Yankees jerseys on opening day, and stop to smell the flowers on the High Line. And when April showers hit, skip the spring cleaning and use your rainy day to check out open roles in NYC’s flourishing tech scene.

In 2022, venture-backed startups based in the Big Apple raised more than $52 billion — more than double what they raised in 2020. With an influx of funding, local companies continue to open new offices in New York, and they’re cultivating opportunities for growth. 

Built In NYC has curated 32 promising possibilities for job seekers looking for a new position this spring. Keep reading to learn about their cultures, perks and core values.

 

 

 

What Merck does: Merck is a global biopharmaceutical company that invents medicines and vaccines for our most challenging diseases. In pursuit of its mission to save and improve lives, Merck increases access to healthcare through policies, programs and partnerships, and the company is researching how to prevent and treat illness like cancer, infectious diseases and emerging animal diseases.

 

 

What’s up with upskilling: Merck focuses on providing professional development and learning journeys for employees. Learning platforms help employees upskill in technology skills like cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, plus product model implementation and leadership. “We are also focused on ‘teaching people to fish,’ as it relates to job training, mentoring and gigs,” Sujatha Bala, director of cloud and infrastructure services program office, told Built In NYC in October. “This includes working in cross-functional teams, as well as three-month external fellowship opportunities where you can sharpen your current skills and learn new skills in a real-world scenario outside of the company.”

 

 

 

What Citadel Securities does: Citadel Securities is a capital markets firm that uses financial, mathematical and engineering expertise to build tools and systems for some of the world’s most important financial institutions.

 

 

In the news: According to recent reporting, Citadel Securities is hiring across Asia as it expands business in China. “All of the cities will continue to hire as our business in the APAC region continues to grow. It’s our fastest-growing region in the world,” said Citadel Securities Chief Executive Officer Peng Zhao. Initial growth in China began with the Shanghai office in 2019, and the team on the mainland is now growing as well, following pandemic-related delays.

 

 

 

What Trail of Bits does: Cybersecurity company Trail of Bits helps organizations fortify their code against cyber threats and reduce risks by combining high-end security research with a real-world attacker mentality.

 

 

People-first culture: The perks and benefits only scratch the surface of the people-first culture fostered by Trail of Bits. “We believe that by investing in our employees, we are not only supporting their growth but strengthening our entire company,” Head of People Operations Nicole Amodei told Built In NYC in December. “It’s vital to have a supportive learning environment that fosters creativity, innovation and collaboration.”

 

 

 

What Derivative Path does: Derivative Path supports more than 180 companies through its cloud-based trading platform that specializes in complex interest rate, foreign exchange and commodity transactions.

 

 

Seamless onboarding: As Derivative Path expands across teams this year, Director of Human Capital Pooja Amin told Built In NYC that the company is launching a new onboarding process to support new hires as they join the firm. “We focus on ensuring that our people sit at the center of our business goals,” she said. “Derivative Path already has a great onboarding process, but as we scale, we realize we need to provide an experience that is more structured and specific to each internal team as well as the company overall.”

 

 

 

 

What CLEAR does: CLEAR’s secure identity platform uses biometric data to confirm one’s identity. CLEAR helps airports, hotels, doctor’s offices and others provide faster, easier and more secure experiences. 

 

 

A clear vision for the future: Jane Stanton, head of travel and hospitality, didn’t envision herself working at CLEAR. But in the first 10 minutes of an informational interview, she was hooked. “The vision and the North Star that CLEAR had was beyond my wildest dreams,” Stanton recently told Built In NYC. “What really drew me to CLEAR was that this was going to be a time in my career when every person I worked with and every project and campaign would force me to level up. There was just a different culture, a different excitement here.”

 

 

 

What Click Therapeutics does: Click Therapeutics builds software-as-prescription technology to treat patients through cognitive and neurobehavioral mechanisms.

 

 

A patient-first product journey: Click creates products for people with unmet medical needs. It’s important for the product team to understand a user’s disease state and emotional journey alongside their actions in Click’s app. “To translate our vision, Click product managers utilize user journey maps as a lightweight, consumable representation of the digital product that an agile team can begin thinking collaboratively about,” Manasi Arora, product lead, told Built In NYC in 2021. “Being patient first, we supplement the user journey with insights from our clinical learning studies to relay the patient’s point of view and base the user journey in reality.”

 

 

 

What Healthee does:  Healthee’s AI-powered platform helps make health benefits more accessible and affordable while helping employees better understand and utilize their benefits.

 

 

The chance to make a difference: What excites executive Emile Garon the most about Healthee is its potential to help millions of people. “Health and wellness are far too important for healthcare and health insurance to be difficult to navigate,” Garon told Built In NYC. “As an account executive at Healthee, I have the unique opportunity to lead our growth efforts and partner with employers to empower their employees to be healthier and get the care they want, when they need it. Not only is change possible in the healthcare sphere, but it’s more realistic than most people think.”

 

 

 

What MarketAxess does: MarketAxess is a fixed income electronic trading platform for institutional investors and dealers to more easily and efficiently trade bonds. The company provides automated trading solutions, market data products and a range of pre- and post-trade services.

 

 

Planning for growth: One way Maria Calderon, head of LATAM sales, perfected her sales game is by staying on top of her pipeline. “I am always looking at the new accounts to bring onboard, new products to add within existing accounts, and also how to scale each client segment,” Calderon told Built In NYC. “Create a business plan based on the growth expected from existing accounts as well as which accounts and client segments are expected to grow.”

 

 

 

 

What Hungryroot does: Hungryroot’s grocery delivery service uses AI to help customers plan and enjoy healthy and delicious meals while saving time and money.

 

 

Multidimensional ownership: Ownership takes many forms on Benjamin Zhang’s engineering team, like owning a piece of code, a new feature on Hungryroot’s platform or an entire system that affects the end user. “Being a relatively small and agile team, it’s no surprise that after a short period of time, one of us becomes the go-to person for a particular project or knowledge domain,” Zhang, a lead software engineer, told Built In NYC. “Over time, we share our expertise in these areas and eventually share the ownership with other members. This helps to bridge knowledge gaps and makes our teamwork more efficient, which also frees up the original knowledge owners to move on to something new.”

 

 

 

What Cedar does: Healthcare financial technology platform Cedar aims to empower consumers to easily and affordably pursue the care they need.

 

 

Seeing the future: Cedar understood the assignment of hybrid work. The company knew it would be a part of our post-pandemic world, and so Cedar decided to introduce three modes of work — in-office, remote and flex — to care for the well-being of its employees. “Patients and health systems are under a lot of pressure because of the economy, staffing shortages and healthcare post-Covid,” Jaya Birch-Desai, a director of research and insight at Cedar, recently told Built In. “Cedar is in a really good place to be able to benefit both parties, and we’re working toward making sure the right people hear the voices of the patients and providers we’re serving.” 

 

 

 

What Bluecore does: Bluecore’s AI-powered marketing platform delivers personalized customer communication and product recommendations for more than 400 brands.

 

 

Overwhelming, unnecessary details no more: Bluecore’s new learning and development team is building internal and external enablement practices, and while doing so, they’re trying to avoid one major pitfall: sharing too much unnecessary information that doesn’t help employees in their work. “We’re not just throwing ‘knowledge spaghetti’ at the wall to see what sticks,” Senior Director of Learning and Development Jason Arrigo told Built In NYC. “We want to understand what someone in front of a customer needs to know and what customers need to know about different aspects of the product — we’re building an agreed-upon foundation of knowledge.”

 

 

 

What BCG X does: BCG X, the corporate innovation arm of Boston Consulting Group, combines advanced tech knowledge and entrepreneurship to help organizations enable innovation at scale. BCG X has helped launch more than 100 digital businesses and established 13 innovation centers and labs globally.

 

 

Thoughtful feedback initiatives: BCG X invites employee feedback through multiple pathways. “We layer data relevant to employee experience and culture from different channels — employee engagement surveys, pulse checks, DEI-led focus groups, HRBP-hosted “stay interviews,” exit interviews and so on — to derive additional insights that help us continue to shape and evolve our culture in a way that resonates with our employees,” North America People Development Senior Manager Marilee Cipra told Built In NYC. “Aside from platforms that track specific data and trends, members of our leadership team have also been known to go on occasional listening tours with a casual, conversational approach that fosters authentic dialogue and connection-building opportunity.”

 

 

 

 

What Current does: Current empowers its members with fintech services that help improve their financial health and create better financial outcomes.

 

 

Owning the future: Current is on the forefront of hybrid finance, which combines the realities of the way money currently works with the opportunities of open platforms, according to Chief Technology Officer Trevor Marshall. “There is an opportunity to come in and have ownership over features and experiences that affect millions of people,” Marshall told Built In NYC last year. “On the very first day as an engineer, you’re able to deploy a service to production. Within six months, you’re in the position of an engineering lead. The way we have our back-end infrastructure set up, you’re getting a broad understanding of how systems work at scale.”

 

 

 

What Howl does: With Howl, creators secure better rates and receive payment for their work, and brands can leverage the power of creators to sell their products. Real-time data fuels easy reporting and attribution.

 

 

All perspectives matter: At Howl, everyone is offered a seat at the table. Within two weeks of joining, Alex Comiskey was asked to share his perspective and help shape the goals for one of the company’s largest clients. “Collaborating, communicating and contributing to a shared culture and project are not perfunctory at Howl,” Comiskey, senior director of brand partnerships, told Built In NYC. “They are viewed as the most critical levers of our own success and growth.”

 

 

 

What Bilt Rewards does: With Bilt Rewards, people earn points by paying their rent, which they can then use toward a down payment on a home or redeem for perks like flights, hotels and fitness classes.  

 

 

Unicorns are real: Bilt Rewards hit a $1.5 billion valuation in October following a $150 million funding round led by Left Lane Capital with participation from Smash Capital, Wells Fargo and Greystar, among other investors. “Housing represents the largest monthly expense for over 100 million renters in the U.S., and yet consumers have never received any incremental value in return,” Harley Miller, Left Lane Capital CEO and managing partner, said in a statement quoted by Built In. “Bilt is quickly weaving itself into the fabric of the everyday consumer and has the potential to become a household brand that covers the entire homeownership journey.”

 

 

 

What Ideon does: Ideon’s suite of APIs connects insurance carriers and tech platforms. Those APIs transmit billions of data points between the carriers and platforms, which allows the benefits ecosystem to grow, operate more efficiently and deliver a seamless experience.

 

 

The power of role models: At Ideon, Senior Product Manager Jashan Ahuja has learned many important lessons thanks to the company’s formal and unstructured development opportunities. “One of the highlights was an in-depth leadership development training spanning several months that focused on mentorship, from which we drew lessons of close collaboration and open feedback to proactively instill in our product team’s culture,” Ahuja told Built In NYC. “My mentors at Ideon have leaned into empowering me and the whole product team by establishing a space to be creative, grow and succeed without fear of failure.” 

 

 

 

 

What YOOBIC does: YOOBIC is a digital workplace for retail and hospitality teams. The company’s mobile app allows business leaders and teams to communicate, learn and work in one place with mobile education and digitized task management.

 

 

Trust before partnership: YOOBIC’s sales team must build relationships with decision-makers and oversee pilot projects before they can finalize partnerships with customers. “We want teammates who think strategically as well as tactically,” Jenna Goldstein, head of strategic accounts, North America, told Built In NYC. “We’re looking for people who embrace our startup culture and spot opportunities while taking ownership of getting results.”

 

 

 

What Pumpkin does: At Pumpkin, pets come first. The pet insurance company aims to remove economic barriers for pet owners who want to ensure their beloved four-legged family members have access to preventive and emergency care. 

 

 

A passion for pets is imperative: Members of Pumpkin’s sales team must have a passion for pets and the professionals who care for them. “Presentation skills are also key in our role because our main responsibility is educating veterinarians in person and virtually on the benefits of pet insurance and how Pumpkin stands out from our competition,” Lauren Rerucha, a former Pumpkin regional sales manager, told Built In NYC. “The ability to independently and collaboratively provide compassion and solutions that benefit pets, their owners and veterinary hospitals is also critical. Lastly, a strong belief in our mission — ‘to make the best pet care pawsible fur all’ — is impurrative.” 

 

 

 

What Spot & Tango does: Spot & Tango delivers high-quality fresh food to pets. The company offers personalized meal plans specifically tailored to your dog’s weight, activity level and lifestyle. 

 

 

In the news: Last year, Spot & Tango raised $38.5 million in a Series B round led by Valor Equity Partners. The funding will help the company hire for engineering, marketing and operations roles. “We fundamentally believe that health and wellness for pets is a right, not a luxury,” Founder Russell Breuer said in a statement. “Our partnership with Valor has been pivotal as we have scaled our team, supply chain and operations to support rapid growth.”

 

 

 

What Aptos Labs does: Founded by the team that developed the blockchain for Meta’s discontinued crypto-based payment system, Aptos builds safe and scalable Layer 1 blockchain, with a goal to create universal and fair access to decentralized assets. 

 

 

In the news: Aptos joined forces with MoonPay to deliver a blockchain onboarding that helps bring people into Web3. APT became available on MoonPay in early November, and now Petra, Aptos Labs’ wallet, features an easy-to-use fiat on-ramp that makes exchanging within the Aptos ecosystem simple. “Using blockchain-based technology can be complex, frustrating and slow. Lack of usability is one of the biggest barriers of widestream adoption,” Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs, said in an Aptos blog. “Through our integration with MoonPay, we are creating a seamless and enjoyable experience for Petra users as they navigate the Aptos blockchain.” 

 

 

 

 

What Flex does: Flex is on a mission to revolutionize the way we pay rent and bills and help users better manage their budget. To do that, the company breaks recurring payments into smaller chunks throughout the month.

 

 

It’s all in the name: Head of Product Jesse Geller describes Flex’s company culture as, well, flexible. “Flex isn’t just the name of the company — it’s how we operate,” Geller told Built In NYC in December. “While this is true for all our teams, the design team especially recognizes how much we still have to learn about how our product fits into the lives of our customers. As we gain insight through research, testing and data, we adapt our perspective and roadmaps to constantly improve our services.”

 

 

 

What nate does: nate’s mobile app allows users to consolidate their online shopping into one private interface. With the fintech company’s app, consumers can share shopping lists, buy and gift products and save potential purchases for later.

 

 

Teamwork makes the dream work: Cooperation is essential to nate’s success. “We work together to find solutions to difficult problems and we celebrate successes and failures as a team,” Chief Scientist Lucas Hadjilucas told Built In. “Be confident in your work and your ideas. As a team, we share, iterate, and improve.”

 

 

 

What Cherre does: Cherre is a data management and analytics platform for the real estate industry. It allows clients to connect their real estate data and make it available to their entire organization, which informs better investment, management and underwriting decisions.

 

 

In the news: In November, Cherre announced a new partnership with real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital. The partnership means Cherre customers can now leverage Clear Capital’s property analytics to conduct more accurate modeling and risk assessments. “By combining Clear Capital’s comprehensive property analytics with data sources within Cherre, we’re able to make the most up-to-date, extensive datasets available to our customers,” Erlind Dine, head of data partnerships at Cherre, said in a press release.

 

 

 

What Carbyne does: With Carbyne’s cloud-based emergency call management platform, dispatchers can speak to callers over video and chat. The platform also provides access to additional data points, including precise location information, that help first responders make decisions.

 

 

Creating connection: To support remote employees, Carbyne created impact guilds that connect employees to one another and scale the company’s culture. “Each guild is made up of people from different departments who work together on a different element of Carbyne’s culture,” Jane Adeosun, a recruiter, told Built In NYC last year. “For example, we have a buddy program that connects each new employee to a tenured employee who serves as a friend and mentor during their first few weeks. We also have a culture group that meets monthly to plan and discuss ideas for improving Carbyne’s culture.”

 

 

 

 

What Paddle does: Paddle is a fintech company that offers SaaS companies a single platform to manage payment infrastructure.

 

 

Remote work works: Paddle boasts a remote work program that helps employees thrive. Senior Pricing Specialist Nika Witczak has gained more time in her day for enriching activities, but she hasn’t lost her focus. “Our team has been incredibly thoughtful about protecting our deep work time,” Witczak told Built In NYC. “We keep mandatory team Zoom calls to a minimum which allows us plenty of time to spend on our client work. The remote work environment has definitely made me more efficient and focused with my time.”

 

 

What Dashlane does: Dashlane’s web and mobile app simplifies password management. It focuses on employee retention through equitable benefits and policies. 

 

 

Putting inclusion first: Dashlane is prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion in 2023 because it’s the right thing to do. Efforts to foster belonging and inclusion range from ensuring employees’ names are pronounced correctly to completing structural changes to internal processes to make them more equitable. Making progress involves everyone according to Talent Acquisition Specialist Grace Okoi. “DEIB should not be siloed within the people team and is not the sole responsibility of underrepresented groups,” Okoi told Built In NYC. “Our goal is to keep learning, asking questions and listening to each other to make a positive difference.”

 

 

 

What CAIS does: ​​CAIS is an alternative investment platform for financial advisors that offers improved access to and education about alternative investment funds and products. CAIS offers a streamlined end-to-end transaction process and a learning system that helps advisors improve client outcomes.

 

 

Dream big: Employees on the product team at CAIS have varying areas of expertise. That promotes thought-provoking discussions and innovative ideas. “We always ask our teams to think big when building the platform,” Product Manager Fahad Hossain told Built In NYC. “No opinions are wrong and questions are always encouraged. We are extremely collaborative and united by our shared common goal: To help make alternative investments, and learning about them, more accessible.”

 

 

 

What Equativ does: Equativ provides a suite of buy and sell-side adtech solutions that are used by advertisers, publishers, broadcast operators, sales houses and data providers.

 

 

In the news: Equativ recently extended its partnership with Seedtag, a contextual advertising company, into Equativ’s curation offering. The partnership will empower buyers to engage with audiences across premium content. “We are pleased to extend our global strategic partnership with Seedtag,” Ingrid Couasnon, executive vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Equativ, commented in a press release. “The integration of their unique contextual AI capabilities into our curation platform will support the creation of closer relationships between buyers and sellers. In the face of the end of third-party cookies, it is critical that we offer privacy-first, transparent, and effective solutions to media buyers everywhere.”

 

 

 

 

What Beam Impact does: Beam Impact is on a mission to shift $10 billion to high-impact nonprofits. It helps mission-driven e-commerce brands like Instacart and Parade build community by letting customers make part of each purchase go to a supported nonprofit.

 

 

Spending for a cause: Beam gives consumers control over their spending power. “Where and how you shop is one of the critical ways that people influence the causes they care about, and it’s often done without a lot of awareness or intentionality,” Chief of Staff Jessica Petro-Cohen told Built In NYC. “The ability to be intentional with one’s spending, work towards specific impact goals and truly understand the ways in which they can make an impact on a day-to-day basis is revolutionary.”

 

 

 

What Bubble does: Bubble is a visual programming platform that allows users to build and host full-featured web apps — no code needed. With one million users, Bubble is on the path to its goal of becoming the go-to-platform for startups and entrepreneurs building web applications.

 

 

Hiring practices that reflect values: Bubble values empowerment, kindness, genuineness, diversity and inclusion. Those values show up in their hiring process. “We follow structured, standardized interview formats with defined scorecards in order to reduce bias in the interviewing process,” VP of People Colleen Tucker told Built In NYC last year. “Bubble believes interviewing is a hard skill, and we invest in our interviewing team by having them shadow each other and give feedback. We train them in techniques for avoiding bias, and we also have a special interview round geared toward understanding a candidate beyond their resume, because we believe that people are more than just the professional skills they bring to work.”

 

 

 

What Pinwheel does: Pinwheel is a payroll connectivity API company used by some of the biggest financial institutions to securely update direct deposits and access income and employment data.

 

 

Planting positivity: Mara Berman had a positive experience at Pinwheel from the start, thanks to a small gesture. “I received a terrarium-building kit that included tiny succulents and other items on my doorstep shortly after accepting,” Berman, commercial counsel, told Built In. The women at Pinwheel employee resource group also invited her to their monthly Zoom meeting where they would build the terrariums together. “Everyone was so welcoming and friendly,” Berman said. 

 

 

 

What Nomad Health does: Nomad Health is an end-to-end self-service digital marketplace for healthcare jobs. It connects quality clinicians with career opportunities, and its tech takes the busywork out of finding clinical work.

 

 

Informed to innovate: Disrupting the healthcare industry is complex business, and Nomad Health ensures employees have knowledge of the clinical world and how it intersects with tech. “We offer a formal onboarding program designed to drive productivity at day one,” Matt Gamboa, senior director of product, told Built In NYC. On top of 101 sessions that deliver industry-specific information, the program connects new hires with onboarding buddies. “Every new hire is paired with someone from a different functional team to help broaden their understanding of the business, company and culture,” Gamoa said.