NYA News - June 2025: Brian Cohen - NYU Mentor of the YearCheck out interviews with NYA's Alexandra Jenkins and Atraverse Medical's John Slump, See Our Latest 5 Investments
The New York Angels Ecosystem Team has been actively been working on building out the early-stage investing ecosystem with fellow angel groups, accelerators/incubators, and universities. Amidst two of the biggest events of the year, Plug and Play Preview Day and Tech Stars, NYA brought together angel groups from across the country while still maintaining our day-to-day investing activity.
Read this month's edition of the NYA Newsletter for the latest info on:
Another strong month of investment, New York Angels Members invested $435k across five companies.
MAY INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
AIM Medical Robotics is a pre-clinical neurosurgical robotics company focused on developing advanced, MRI-compatible robotics for neurosurgery. Their compact, portable surgical robots facilitate intelligent intraoperative planning and real-time soft tissue imaging. After making strong progress since NYA Members invested in the bridge note last fall, Tom Hirschfeld, Alex Goldberg, Jessie Harlin led this follow-on investment in AiM's Series A.
CELITECH has designed a best-in-class connectivity platform to improve international travel, wins loyalty, and powers great experiences. NYA Members invested behind their smart to the ongoing shift from physical SIMs to digital. CELITECH pioneered the one-click eSIM concept as B2B offering and has secured clients including KAYAK, Alaska Airlines, Visa, and more. Seth Masters and Rob Hedlund were the deal leads for CELITECH.
Epicured works with individuals, health plans, healthcare providers, and life sciences companies to design innovative and delicious meal solutions that improve health outcomes through enhanced nutrition. The company continues to make strong progress and has signed its 5th Medicaid contract with the Health Equity Alliance of Long Island (HEALI). New York Angels invested in their Series B In behind their continued growth and strong referral rate. Hugh Cullman led the follow-on round.
Journey is the leading proactive mental health solution for companies. By providing a comprehensive mental solution, Journey is replacing traditional EAPs with short-term counseling, group support, and onsite care. NYA Members invested in Journey as the company has demonstrated strong traction and an experienced team led by Founder & CEO Stephen Sokoler, a serial entrepreneur, who built and ran several multi-million companies and operations. Journey deal leads included Tom Hirschfeld, John McCarthy, and Mark Schneider
SAYSO is the first-ever all-natural, non-alcoholic cocktail mix, in a tea bag format. SAYSO only takes three minutes to infuse in cold water to create a restaurant-caliber drink. Simply add spirts to turn the mocktail into a cocktail. After originally pitching over a year ago to NYA, SAYSO has beat their original projections and has now gained NYA Member investment. Bruce Kaminstein and Brian Silver supported SAYSO in closing for NYA.
FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
Atraverse Medical CEO & Co-Founder John Slump is a serial medical device entrepreneur with several successful exits, including Surgical Innovation Associates (SIA) where he previously served as CFO. New York Angels (NYA) Members invested in multiple rounds with SIA. Now in his first CEO role, John secured initial seed investment plus additional follow-on investment from NYA Members in every subsequent round offered by Atraverse, the medical device company pioneering next-generation left-heart access and optimized RF technology. John shares how he pitched to New York Angels multiple times, how NYA’s investment process is in the “Goldilocks” zone, and why fundraising is a team sport.
COMPANY NEWS
NESTMENT
Nestment announced a new partnership with Esusu, the leading rent reporting financial technology platform, to help renters become homeowners through personalized support, trusted real estate connections, positive rent reporting, and financial incentives. ReadPress Release
COMPANY NEWS REBEL GIRLS
Rebel Girls won the 2025 Bronze Telly Award for the Build the Future Campaign built in partnership with Meta's Reality Labs. The campaign was recognized as one of the best Branded Content Campaigns in Science & Technology. See All 2025 Telly Award Winners
COMPANY NEWS
NYSHEX
NYSHEX launched the new floating-rate NYFI index to help shippers and carriers better manage market volatility. NYFI are the first indices built on actual transacted rates, designed to support long-term planning, index-linked contracting, and future hedging tools. NYFI is uniquely designed to be the most user-friendly index for customers. ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) helped develop the NYFI, and the index will launch with the Transpacific Eastbound and Transatlantic Westbound trades with additional global expansion planned.
New York Angels Members first invested in NYSHEX in a late 2016 bridge round, and NYA Members have made several subsequent investments into the company since then. NYSHEX has also secured major investment from Goldman Sachs, GE Ventures, and Blumberg Capital in addition to Hapag Lloyd, a top 10 carrier. Gordon Downes, NYSHEX CEO and Co-Founder, has deep domain knowledge and surmounted many obstacles to create a company that has driven significant innovation within the container freight industry. ReadArticle
NYA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Before Alexandra Jenkins became an angel investor, she spent almost 20 years in public equities, selecting stocks both on the long side and short side across a wide range of sectors. Alexandra joined New York Angels in 2021, and her expertise in financial analysis has been an invaluable asset to the team ever since. Alexandra discusses the importance of investment terms for founders and why founders need enough capital to grow significantly.
NYA MEMBER NEWS
BRIAN COHEN RECOGNIZED AS NYU MENTOR OF THE YEAR
NYA Chairman Emeritus Brian Cohen was recognized as the 2025 NYU Mentor of the Year. Brian has supported the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge for nearly two decades offering invaluable guidance to NYU founders over this time. In addtition to his mentorship, Brian served as a judge for the New Venture Track. Brian has judged in the competition for the past 15 years contributing his expertise to evaluate and support early-stage companies. Read About the 2025 NYU Mentor of the Year and Entrepreneurs Challenge
MEMBER EVENTS ANGEL GROUPS X PLUG AND PLAY DEMO DAY
MEMBER EVENTS
TECHSTARS ANGEL GROUP DEMO DAY
Last month, New York Angels hosted demo day previews for both Plug and Play and Techstars accelerators with 25 of the largest US angel groups in the country participating. The purpose of the events was to identify the most angel-friendly opportunities coming out of each accelerator's latest cohorts and showcase them early to a wide mix of angel groups. 12 of the 16 companies that presented had sufficient interest to move forward and we look forward to hosting these events again in the fall. If you are a member of an angel group and wish to be involved in the fall event please reach out to jon@newyorkangels.com.
FAST COMPANY WHAT THE '2% OF VC FUNDING' STAT GETS WRONG ABOUT WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The widely circulated statistic that women entrepreneurs receive less than 2% of VC funding is misleading and overlooks the significant progress across the early-stage startup ecosystem. In reality, in 2024, companies founded by at least one woman secured 23% of total VC capital, a considerable increase from just 9% in 2008. Read the full article to learn about the two biggest misinterpretations about women entrepreneurs and their ability to secure capital.
UPCOMING MEMBER MEETINGS
Investment Forum (Hybrid):
• June 23rd (9:00 AM - 12:30 PM)
July Screening (Hybrid):
• July 7th (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
FOUNDER DEADLINES
July Screening Application:
• June 16th
*New York Angels, Inc. ("NYA") is a not-for-profit corporation that is funded by membership dues for individuals and/or entities that NYA has designated as members as well as from certain sponsors. Its purposes include providing administrative support to its members. NYA does not invest in companies. Investments, if made, are made by individual members of NYA.