CNet.com and the New York Times are announcing the launch of the latest seed stage funding engine for early stage ventures: NYC Seed. Spurred by New York City Mayor Michael P. Bloomberg, who was a technology entrepreneur himself, the fund has approximately $2 million and plans to provide up to $200,000 per venture in early stage capital. There isn’t much information available on their web site, aside from a PDF application, but it will be interesting to see how quickly they are able to build a portfolio of ventures and what markets they gravitate towards.

In addition to funding, it appears NYC Seed aims to provide the networking element, as well: “NYC Seed provides guidance from notable entrepreneurs, technologists and venture capitalists. We also connect companies to potential initial customers and when ready, we help companies move to their next stage of development.”

NYC Seed is a public-private partnership between the New York City Economic Development Corp. the New York City Investment Fund, the Partnership for New York City’s economic development arm, Polytechnic University, the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corp.