Tech companies in NYC: the five-borough count, the largest public companies and how to find the rest

This page is for people searching for tech, software and IT companies in New York: job seekers, companies choosing a developer or IT provider, investors and B2B sellers whose customers are tech firms. It starts with the federal count by borough, then the public companies, then the city and state sources that name the rest.

How many tech companies are in New York City

County Business Patterns (CBP), the Census Bureau's annual count of businesses with employees, counted 5,635 tech establishments in New York City's five counties in 2023. Tech means four NAICS industry groups: software publishers (5112), computer systems design and related services (5415), data processing, hosting and related services (518) and other information services (5191).

The city is 2.87% of the 196,184 tech establishments in the US. Employee counts for the four outer boroughs, and so the city total, aren't reported here: to protect confidentiality the Census Bureau adds noise to employment figures, and for those boroughs at least one industry's figure is flagged as high noise, meaning it was changed by 5% or more. Manhattan's figures carry no such flag.

Manhattan: where the jobs are

Other information services, mostly internet publishing and web search portals (524 of the city's 703), is Manhattan's biggest tech employer group, ahead of IT services and software. That fits a city where media, advertising technology and online marketplaces are as much "tech" as software is. Across the five boroughs, computer systems design and related services, the IT consultancies and integrators, are the most numerous at 3,463 establishments employing 51,770 people.

Manhattan has 324 tech sites with 100 or more employees, 9.2% of its total. The outer boroughs are a different market: 1,044 of Brooklyn's 1,263 tech establishments have fewer than five employees, and 747 of its 861 IT services establishments do. The combined five-borough size table isn't published because several outer-borough cells are withheld by the Census Bureau to protect confidentiality.

The largest public tech companies headquartered in NYC

Ranked by revenue in each company's latest annual report, all with principal executive offices in Manhattan:

The list covers SEC-registered listed companies in software, computer services and computer hardware codes (SIC 357x, 367x and 737x) with a New York City business address, checked against each 10-K. Several foreign companies that EDGAR matches to New York addresses, including Baidu, Weibo, Sohu and So-Young (Beijing) and STMicroelectronics (the Netherlands), report principal offices abroad and are left out. Magnite ($714.0 million) is 16th. Large tech employers based elsewhere, such as Google or Amazon offices, don't appear, and neither do private companies, which publish no revenue.

There's no official list of the city's largest employers to add. The NYC Comptroller's annual financial report explains why it has none: other than the City of New York, no single employer employs more than 2 percent of the city's nonfarm workforce.

Finding NYC tech companies by name

The SBS list is the quickest route to certified IT vendors if you buy for a public agency or have supplier diversity goals. The state corporation file confirms that a company you've found is an active entity.

Choosing a New York tech or IT firm

1. Decide which market you're buying in. A Manhattan firm with 100 or more staff brings process and higher rates; one of Brooklyn's 1,000-plus micro firms brings speed and a single point of failure.
2. Confirm the legal entity in the state's active corporations data and match it to the contract.
3. Ask for a certificate of insurance naming you, with cyber and professional liability (errors and omissions) cover.
4. Check certification on the SBS list if you need an M/WBE vendor.
5. Get references in your industry. Media, finance and health clients want different things from the same tools.

Prospecting NYC tech companies

Size decides the motion. Manhattan's 2,042 sites with fewer than five employees, and most of the outer boroughs, are founders: short emails, fast answers. The 404 Manhattan sites with 20 to 99 employees have a head of engineering, operations or finance with a budget. The 324 with 100 or more run procurement and security review and often have several buyers for one purchase; see how buying committees form.

Two cautions specific to New York. Many large Manhattan sites are branch offices of companies headquartered elsewhere, so check where the budget sits before you build a sequence. And because media and advertising technology make up so much of the market, read each company's model before you pitch software-company assumptions.

Worked example: an insurance broker for tech firms

Illustrative example. The company, people and figures are fictional, to show the method.

Hudson Line Risk (hudsonline.example) places cyber and technology errors and omissions insurance. Enterprise customers often ask their software vendors for proof of that cover, so Hudson Line targets Manhattan tech firms with 20 to 99 employees.

• Manhattan tech establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 275 + 129 = 404.
• Hudson Line assumes 30% are branches of companies headquartered elsewhere, whose insurance is bought at head office, leaving about 280 accounts.
• Policies renew once a year, so about 23 accounts come up for renewal in any month. Hudson Line starts each conversation three months before renewal.

Finding renewal dates isn't possible from public data, but finding the companies that just signed enterprise customers or raised funding is. Bebop takes "Manhattan software companies with 20 to 99 employees that announced enterprise customers this year" and returns matches with the context for each.

Subject: The insurance clause in [Company]'s new enterprise contracts

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on [signal: the new customer or round]. Larger customers usually add cyber and errors and omissions minimums to vendor contracts, and those limits often sit above what a growing company bought two years ago.

We compare your current policies against the limits your contracts require and quote the gap. Would a 20-minute review before your next renewal be useful?

[Your name], Hudson Line Risk

What the count includes

CBP counts establishments, single locations with at least one paid employee, for the week of March 12, 2023. One company with offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn counts twice. Freelancers and owner-only firms aren't included, and tech teams inside banks, media companies and retailers count under their employers' industries, which matters a great deal in New York.

Next step: turn the borough you've chosen into a list with how to build a prospect list.