Partnership Fund for New York City

Maria Gotsch serves as President and CEO, overseeing all investment and lab activities. The Fund draws on a board composed of New York City business leaders and subject-matter advisors from the Partnership for New York City’s member companies. Henry Kravis founded the Fund and remains a defining influence, but daily execution sits with Gotsch and her team.

Deal flow originates primarily through the Fund’s innovation labs — the Transit Tech Lab, Environmental Tech Lab, and Buildings Tech Lab — which solicit applications from startups worldwide to pilot technologies inside New York City agencies. This front-door into the MTA, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and Department of Buildings yields highly vetted pipeline that commercial investors rarely see. The Fund also leverages the Partnership for New York City’s network of 300+ member companies for referrals and due-diligence support.

It operates as a nonprofit investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, a business-civic organization — not a family office and not a traditional venture firm. All returns recycle into the Fund’s mission rather than distributing to LPs. It makes direct equity investments, project finance, and nonprofit grants, blurring venture, impact, and public-private partnership models into one vehicle.

The Fund makes direct equity investments and project-level commitments; there is no public evidence of fund-of-funds or LP commitments. Its capital goes into operating businesses, nonprofits, and public-private infrastructure projects. The innovation-lab model further substitutes for fund commitments by giving the Fund early, hands-on access to emerging companies.

The Fund targets seed and early-stage companies, occasionally extending into growth-stage investments when a market gap persists. Its lab programs are designed for companies with a working prototype ready for a pilot, implying pre-seed to Series A. It has also placed growth capital in more mature urban infrastructure initiatives like the Citi Bike expansion.

There is no publicly stated exclusion list. The Fund’s mandate is positively defined — it invests where technology serves the public interest in New York City, focusing on urban infrastructure, financial inclusion, workforce development, and sustainability. It implicitly avoids sectors with no urban-civic nexus, such as defense tech, pure consumer-packaged goods, or remote enterprise software with no NYC tie.

The Fund is the direct investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, a membership organization of more than 300 CEOs from the city’s largest employers. This embedding gives the Fund access to executive expertise, pilot partners inside city agencies, and policy influence — a structural link that distinguishes it from independent impact funds. The Fund’s president reports to the Partnership’s board and CEO.