Tech:NYC Digest: April 4

Tech:NYC Digest: April 4

April 04, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

In today’s digest, Manhattan’s pandemic population reversal, the first accelerator dedicated to BIPOC founders in Brooklyn gets to work, and the future of tax season, according to AI.

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  • There isn’t tons of non-Trump news in New York, as many local reporters have been covering the arraignment — and dueling rallies — outside the courthouse today. (Gothamist) 

    • District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Pres. Trump are both expected to address the public this evening, and you can read the unsealed indictment of 34 felony counts here if you’re so inclined. The next in-person court appearance in the case against Trump is … Dec. 4.

  • Manhattan’s population saw a net population increase of nearly 17,500 people in 2022, up 1.1% from the year before, reversing two years of pandemic-fueled decline. Much of the growth was from births and international migration. (Axios)

  • BK-XL, a startup accelerator developed in Brooklyn by the Social Justice Fund and Visible Hands, announced its inaugural cohort. The 10-week program makes initial investments and provides space at Industry City, with the potential for follow-on funding if the startup commits to staying in Brooklyn for a certain amount of time. Learn more about the accepted companies here.

  • Twenty-one city employees graduated today from the first-ever New York City Cyber Command, where they will each become liaisons between their agencies and the Office of Technology and Innovation’s Cyber Command to help city government monitor and respond to cyber threats in-house. (StateScoop) 

In other reading:

  • NYC’s primary is in June for City Council seats. Here’s why it matters. (Gothamist)

  • Is Fallout from SVB Still Increasing the Risk of a Recession? (New York Magazine)

  • 14 Sun-Soaked Rooftops for Eating and Drinking in NYC (Eater NY)

A note for the tax procrastinators out there: You officially have just two weeks left to get your filings in by the April 18 deadline.

Here’s a new tool that may help: April, an (aptly-named) NYC-based embedded tax preparation software, has fully launched after training multiple open language models to read and absorb massive tax code, writes Axios.

  • The AI works inside partner platforms throughout the year and automatically translates complicated tax law into software code, with the idea that taxpayers will gain access to a real-time sense of what their tax bills might look like outside of yearly deadlines.

  • The startup is an authorized IRS e-file provider, and in a few states (including New York), taxpayers who are already customers of their banking and fintech partners can also use it to file state taxes.

How it works: Instead of existing as a standalone service, it uses generative AI to integrate into financial institutions and platforms like Acorns and Mercury to fully automate the e-filing process with the right underlying forms based on someone’s answers to personalized questions.

  • Co-founder and CEO Ben Borodach told Axios, “By opening up access to the tax law, our role is really helping all Americans have the opportunity to maximize [their] financial outcomes.”

Our take: Given NYC’s legacy as a global financial hub, plus its emerging centerstage position with AI, it makes sense that new cross-sector solutions like April are being built here. Besides being a financial tool, April is yet another example of how AI is burgeoning not just as its own innovation, but as one that will undergird all others.

In other reading:

  • MidOcean Partners, a NYC-based alternative asset manager, raised more than $1.5 billion for a new fund focused on investing in mid-market companies. 

  • Quantexa, a NYC and London-based decision intelligence platform for the public and private sectors, raised $129 million in Series E funding. GIC led the round and was joined by Warburg Pincus, Dawn Capital, British Patient Capital, Evolution Equity Partners, HSBC, BNY Mellon, ABN AMRO, and AlbionVC.

  • April 11: Virtual: Qualifying and Forecasting: How Real Are Your Deals?, with Work-Bench sales advisor Kiran Narsu. Register here.

  • April 12 – 14: In-person and virtual: NFT.NYC, with OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah, givepact CEO Alicia Maule, Salesforce general manager of web3 Adam Caplan, and others. Register here.

  • April 20: Virtual: #notapitch: Unofficial Feedback on Your Idea/Prototype from a VC, with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell. Register here.

  • April 24 – 28: Virtual and in-person: New York Fintech Week 2023, with dozens of events featuring Tech:NYC member companies, including Current, Rho, Addition Wealth, Orum, and more. See the full schedule and register here.

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