Tech
New York’s top VCs under 30
The next generation of New York City investors are already making their mark in the Big Apple.
They come from big-name venture firms like Female Founders Fund and Lerer Hippeau and smaller ones like Chai Ventures. They work in areas like growth, consumer, and health. They canoe, hike, and play pickleball on the weekends. We chatted with some of the young investors — think, under 30 — who are helping to shape the future of venture capitalism in New York City.
Here’s who is on the list so far.
(This list will be updated periodically.)
Layla Alexander — Female Founders Fund
Background: Alexander, 25, first entered the industry through an internship with Cleo Capital and Harlem Capital, before landing at FFF as an investor in 2022.
Why this VC is notable: She’s excited about the care economy, enterprise climate tech, and healthcare (all very buzzy — and lucrative — sectors these days). Her firm’s portfolio includes the astrology app Co-Star and model Winnie Harlow’s Cay Skin.
Fun facts and interests: Her hobbies include running, reading, the sauna, and Pilates. She’s looking for founders who deeply know their market, retain users, and have research that shows their companies can scale.
Lori Berenberg — Bloomberg Beta
Background: Berenberg, 29, worked in technical and product management roles after college until she caught the eye of Bloomberg Beta. Transitioning from product management to venture capital was a risk, but she says her background gives her a unique perspective while evaluating startups, allowing her to “bridge the gap between technical innovation and go-to-market,” she told TechCrunch.
Why this VC is notable: One of the features she led while working at MongoDB as a product manager is now awaiting a patent.
Fun facts and interests: Her hobbies include needlepoint and vintage fashion. She wants to back companies with the potential to be more than great. “It needs a shot at the extraordinary.”
Alex Chung — Chai Ventures
Background: Chung, 26, got into the venture industry through her mentor, Serena Dayal, a partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, who shared tips on how to navigate the ecosystem. “Most importantly, she imbued me with confidence,” Chung told TechCrunch.
Why this VC is notable: She’s into women’s health, identifying it as an area for much potential as the sector — and its need for innovation — steps into the national spotlight.
Fun facts and interests: Her hobbies include running, racquet sports, and needlepointing.
Besart Çopa — Antler
Background: Çopa, 27, started at Antler just this year. He previously held an internship at a16z, then started Chestr, an online shipping platform. The company closed and Copa then joined Antler. He thought about founding another startup but felt he didn’t have an idea he was passionate about, “so the second best thing was to support others who did.”
Why this VC is notable: He’s a founder turned principal investor at one of the hottest accelerator programs around. “If I hadn’t chewed glass myself, I would have found it impossible to truly sympathize with the journeys of the founders I support.”
Fun facts and interests: He disagrees with the industry’s seeming obsession with young founders. “Let teens be teens,” he said. “Fall in love. Watch the stars. You can still build on the side. If you have an idea you feel in your bones that it must exist, then go for it. Otherwise, you can always start a B2B SaaS [company] later.”
His hobbies include reading history and painting. As a pre-seed investor, he has a founder-centric approach to investing and says he’s looking for those who are building focused solutions for niche user problems. “The more niche, the better!”
Ethan Daly — Shine Capital
Background: Daly, 27, started out in investment banking before moving to Shine, where he has been for the past four years. He is now a partner at the firm.
Why this VC is notable: He was recently promoted to partner at Shine.
Fun facts and interests: Shine Capital’s portfolio includes the collector community Flamingo and the workplace platform Notion.
Marina Girgis — Precursor VC
Background: Girgis, 29, started out on the finance side, researching data and semiconductors. She loved learning about emerging tech but said she wanted to have more of a direct impact on the companies she researched, so she pivoted and has since become quite bullish on investing in companies at the pre-seed stage.
“I chose to become a generalist and invest at the earliest stage possible, idea-stage companies, so I could get to know the people behind the companies and witness their transformation from the very beginning,” she told TechCrunch.
Why this VC is notable: Known for her knack at picking pre-seed companies, like AI security startup Edera, and for moving fast to make the end-to-end investment process feel seamless.
Fun facts and interests: Her outside hobbies include jigsaw puzzles and reading murder mysteries. One thing she would like to see change in the industry is rigid thinking on what type of founders to back. “There are no hard and fast rules in venture,” she said, adding that anyone can fail regardless of background. “You should learn from your past experiences as an investor, but my hope is to stay open-minded.”
Laura Hamilton — Notable Capital
Background: Hamilton, 26, has been an investor at Notable Capital since 2023. She got her start in the industry by sending many cold emails and making cold calls to alumni. She landed her first VC job by applying cold on LinkedIn, “proving the hustle strategy works,” she told TechCrunch.
Why this VC is notable: At Notable, she’s focusing on data, cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and cybersecurity. “Right now, I’m especially interested in agent infrastructure,” and she is looking to back more founders with deep passion and purpose.
Fun facts and interests: Her hobbies include hosting a podcast called Partner Path, where she dives into the success stories of rising investors and founders. She also helps run FemBuild Collective, a community for female engineers and technical founders in the City.
Emily Herrera — Slow Ventures
Background: Herrera, 25, is an investor at Slow Ventures, whose portfolio includes delivery service Postmates, women’s footwear brand Birdies, and the social app Citizen. She previously worked at Night Ventures and specializes in consumer investing and the creator economy.
Why this VC is notable: Her forward-thinking approach to creator economy investing came as others were still pondering the sector’s impact.
Fun facts and interests: She has a long history in venture, interning everywhere from Harlem Capital to Dorm Room Fund. Fast Company hailed her as one of the “savviest creator economy investors” in 2022 for her work at Night Ventures, which backed companies such as influencer marketing platform Pearpop and NFT app Zora.
Bryce Johnson — Primary Venture Partners
Background: Johnson, 25, spent time working in software and product at Big Tech. He heard Josh Wolfe from Lux Capital speak at an event one year and became fixated on the idea of early-stage investing. He pivoted to management consulting and used that network to land an analyst role at Primary.
Why this VC is notable: One of the only junior VCs at his firm, he is known for being an advocate for diversity within VC.
Fun facts and interests: He loves classical music and backpacked Southeast Asia last summer. For work, his focus is in healthcare, consumer, SMB tech, and vertical SaaS.
Will McKelvey — Lerer Hippeau
Background: McKelvey, 29, partnered with a few classmates and raised a fund to start backing startups while attending UC Berkeley. After graduation, he moved to New York and joined Lerer Hippeau.
Why this VC is notable: Launched a student venture fund at Berkeley that is still making investments.
Fun facts and interests: One thing he would like to change about the industry is the amount of ego and arrogance that persists, which can cause investors to miss out on opportunities and talent. “Many VCs have always been the star student, went to the fancy schools, and got the fancy job, so they misguidedly carry that attitude into this role,” he continued. “This industry could use a heavy dose of humility.”
His hobbies include softball, basketball, and beach volleyball. He wants to know two things from the founders who pitch him. “What is the insight you have that everyone else is missing, and how did you unearth it?” he said. “What is driving you to take on the titanic effort of building a company from scratch?”
Mason Murray — NEA
Background: Murrary, 28, joined the firm after a brief career in investment banking. He’s mostly a generalist but focuses on software companies selling to businesses or consumers.
Why this VC is notable: Unprompted, three people on this list asked to make sure he was included. According to NEA’s website, he has made six investments, including in the solar-powered robotics platform Aigen and the wellness ecosystem The Well.
Fun facts and interests: He joined the firm after a brief career in investment banking. He’s mostly a generalist but focuses on software companies selling to businesses or consumers.
He’s bullish on AI and wouldn’t mind seeing more AI founders coming to New York. “We have talent, customers, capital, and great academic institutions,” he told TechCrunch. “I’m bullish on New York.”
In his personal life, he’s a hobby collector, musician, singer, and amateur cook. In his professional life, he’s looking for founders with a clear vision on how the world can be different, “paired with a precise hypothesis on what it takes to get there.”
Zehra Naqvi — Headline Ventures
Background: Naqvi, 25, worked at a few consumer startups before officially becoming an investor for Headline last year.
Why this VC is notable: She’s known around town for her popular venture capital newsletter No GPs Allowed, which offers networking opportunities to investors around New York.
Fun facts and interests: She loves being an investor and says even though the market is down in the consumer sector right now, “history has proven time and time again that now is the best time to double down on investing in the future of consumers,” she told TechCrunch. “Be a contrarian.”
Her hobbies include going to art galleries, traveling, playing tennis, and watching movies (she’s an AMC Stubs member). She’s looking for founders in the consumer space, in both tech and consumer packaged goods, between pre-seed and Series A.
David Ongchoco — Comma Capital
Background: Ongchoco, 28, has a background in tech, sales, and investing, working for places like Dorm Room Fund, interning at Learn Capital, and working in sales and growth at Amplitude and Rutter.
Why this VC is notable: Ongchoco is a co-founder of Comma Capital, which invests at the pre-seed and seed stages.
Fun facts and interests: He, alongside his co-founder Adarsh Bhatt, made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 this year for their work in venture capital. Comma has backed more than 50 companies to date, some of which have gone on to be acquired by companies like Stripe and Airtable.
Alexandra Sukin — Bessemer Venture Partners
Background: Sukin, 27, got her start in the industry while at Harvard, where she was involved with various on-campus activities like Harvard Ventures and was a founding member of the VC firm Contrary Capital. After graduating, she joined Bessemer.
Why this VC is notable: She’s a vice president at Bessemer, and her investments include the fintech Truebill (acquired by Rocket Technologies) and enterprise companies Unito, Rewind, and Contractbook.
Fun facts and interests: Her hobbies include hiking and skiing, and she loves spending time out West, as her father’s side of the family is from Montana and Colorado. “While I’m investing a lot these days in vertical and SMB software, I am also really excited about AI enabling a wave of consumer companies,” she said.
Mark Xu — Lightspeed Venture Partners
Background: Xu, 24, is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, whose investments, according to his LinkedIn, include Glean, Stripe, Wiz, and Anduril.
Why this VC is notable: One of the youngest to ever be promoted to partner at Lightspeed Ventures.
Fun facts and interests: Attended the Juilliard School for the violin before heading to Harvard University to study math. Had a background in business development and investment banking before joining Lightspeed Ventures.
Vincent Zhu — General Catalyst
Background: Zhu, 25, is an early-stage investor at General Catalyst and, according to his LinkedIn, loves working with founders “building for the digitally native generation.”
Why this VC is notable: He’s made a name for himself around town, hosting events and helping founders get intros.
Fun facts and interests: After college, he worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs before joining General Catalyst two years ago. The firm’s portfolio includes Stripe, Canva, and Warby Parker.
Tech
Cursor makes its biggest India push yet ahead of SpaceX acquisition with localized pricing
Weeks before its expected acquisition by SpaceX closes, AI coding startup Cursor is making its biggest push into India yet, launching its first country-specific subscription as the company bets on one of the world’s largest developer markets to drive its next stage of growth.
On Monday, the startup introduced Cursor Start, a ₹649-a-month (about $7) subscription built specifically for India — and priced well below Cursor’s standard $20-a-month Pro subscription.
The move reflects India’s growing importance to Cursor’s business. The startup says India is already its third-largest market globally and home to its highest concentration of power users, with its user base in the country more than tripling over the past year.
That scale, coupled with India’s deep pool of software engineering talent, made it the first market where Cursor chose to localize pricing, Simon Green, Cursor’s head of Asia-Pacific and Japan, told TechCrunch. “We felt that we had an opportunity there to right-size the commercial model and drive scale,” Green said. “The technical competency of the country and the engineering talent that already exists make it a very natural fit.”
India has emerged as one of the world’s largest software developer hubs. Earlier this year, GitHub said that the country has more than 27 million developers on its platform, second only to the U.S., with more than two million joining in 2026 alone.
Cursor Start includes access to Cursor’s Composer 2.5 model and Grok 4.5, with higher usage limits than the free tier, alongside cloud agents, its iOS app, plugins, Model Context Protocol support, hooks, and skills. The startup said the plan is aimed at developers who need more AI-assisted coding capacity than the free tier offers without upgrading to its full Pro subscription.
The lower-priced plan is intended to broaden access rather than replace Cursor’s flagship offering, Green said. Unlike the $20-a-month Pro subscription, Start does not include access to frontier AI models from providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, or advanced features including Bugbot, Auto Mode, Automations, and the Cursor SDK.
The plan is billed in Indian rupees and supports payments through credit and debit cards as well as India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Green told TechCrunch that Cursor would use multiple checks to ensure the India-only subscription is available only to individual users in the country, including measures to deter people from accessing the plan through virtual private networks (VPNs).
Cursor is not alone in tailoring its pricing for India. OpenAI and Anthropic have also rolled out India-specific plans over the past year as global AI companies compete for users in one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
While Cursor Start is initially limited to India, Green told TechCrunch that the startup could expand localized pricing to other markets if the model proves successful.
“We will continue to do everything we can to fuel the demand and serve those clients that are using us,” Green said. “Now, if this model proves that we could take it to other markets, perhaps we will. But I think it’d be crazy to say we would never do it elsewhere.”
OpenAI provides one precedent for this strategy, having launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go in India before expanding the lower-priced subscription to other markets.
In addition to the localized pricing strategy, Cursor is also expanding its presence in India through new hires. Green told TechCrunch that the startup recently hired its first salesperson in India and expects another leader to join in Delhi. The company is also building out its a government affairs office, alongside three technical customer support hires, as it expands its presence in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Cursor’s enterprise push is still in its early stages in India, Green said, where adoption has so far been driven largely by individual developers, startups, and universities. He said Cursor sees significant opportunities in sectors including banking and large enterprises as it expands its local sales efforts.
Green said, the India-specific pricing was designed to be commercially sustainable rather than a loss leader. He said the lower-priced plan is viable because it is built around Cursor’s own AI models, which carry lower operating costs than relying primarily on third-party frontier models.
Cursor’s India expansion comes a little over a month after Elon Musk’s SpaceX agreed to acquire the AI coding startup in a $60 billion all-stock deal, following SpaceX’s blockbuster initial public offering. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3. However, SpaceX has been partnered with Cursor since April to develop a next-generation “coding and knowledge work AI.”
Green said Cursor will continue to operate independently until the transaction closes and that the company’s India expansion plans were already in motion before the deal. Once the acquisition closes, however, Green said SpaceX’s existing presence in India through Starlink could help Cursor expand faster by lowering commercial and operational barriers.
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Tech
Lyft and Baidu enter London’s robotaxi battleground as testing begins
Chinese tech giant Baidu has started testing autonomous vehicles in London as part of its partnership with Lyft and Freenow, the German taxi and multi-mobility app that Lyft now owns. Baidu is the latest in a string of companies to test self-driving technology in the UK ahead of commercial robotaxi deployments.
The testing, which began Tuesday with human safety operators, comes nearly a year after the two companies struck a strategic partnership to deploy Baidu’s purpose-built Apollo Go RT6 robotaxi across key European markets through the Lyft platform. The vehicles will eventually be available through Freenow, which Lyft acquired in 2025 for about $197 million.
That deal gave Lyft a foothold in Europe’s ride-hailing market, where a handful of well-funded companies are now jockeying to be first to market with robotaxis.
London is particular is shaping up to be a key battleground in the region. In April, Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety operators in the city. Uber and its self-driving tech partner, Wayve, also announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in London this year. That initial service — which customers can now sign up for on an interest list — will have human safety operators behind the wheel before fully driverless operations begin later.
Baidu and Freenow by Lyft (as the latter service is now called) said they expect to invite the public to hail their robotaxis in 2027. The companies, which didn’t provide a more detailed timeline, noted that the launch will depend on regulatory approval.
For now, dozens of test vehicles will operate within London’s borough of Brent. Lyft and Freenow said they continue discussions with safety and city officials, including Transport for London (TfL) and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV). The UK government is in the process of creating autonomous vehicle regulations and opened applications in May for companies interested in an AV pilot program that lets companies test self-driving vehicles under government oversight.
When the service does launch, Freenow by Lyft said it will operate a hybrid network — employing the same language rival Uber has used — meaning human drivers operating taxis and private-hire vehicles will work alongside the robotaxis.
“As a platform with deep roots in the taxi industry, our priority is ensuring that autonomous technology supports the professional drivers who keep London moving,” Thomas Zimmermann, CEO of Freenow by Lyft, said in a statement.
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Granola launches an Apple Watch app
AI note-taking app Granola is launching an app for the Apple Watch in hopes that its users will want to record meetings and take notes without using their smartphones.
Users can set the Granola app as one of the watch faces to start transcribing at any time. The app can also surface reminders about upcoming meetings, and works with the iOS app, which launched last year.
The company’s co-founder, Chris Pedregal, told TechCrunch that the Apple Watch app is meant to be a way to capture in-person meetings without having to take your phone out of your pocket — for example, if someone is having a walking one-on-one meeting.
When Granola tested its app with employees who had Apple Watches, a big chunk of their mobile usage switched from iOS to the Watch, the company said.
In the past year, companies have released auxiliary devices that can be used with smartphones to record and transcribe meetings. Granola said it considered it easier to develop an app for Apple Watches rather than integrate with another hardware product at this point. Dictation app Monlogue earlier this year also added support for meeting note-taking, for both online and offline modalities, along with Apple Watch support.
Granola became a unicorn earlier this year with a $125 million Series C round that was led by Index Ventures.
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