Tech:NYC Digest: June 29

Tech:NYC Digest: June 29

June 29, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Thursday, June 29, 2023

In today’s digest, AI startups are raising real cash, the "handshake agreement" on the city budget, and how libraries are embracing remote workers. 

  • Today, Tech:NYC announced a new partnership with WeWork to launch a new Founder House on July 11. Learn more about our plans here, and if you’re an early-stage founder in New York, we hope you’ll apply to join us! 

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  • A deal has been reached for the city’s $107 billion budget. Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced a budget agreement for the 2024 fiscal year today, just ahead of the July 1 deadline. (City & State) 

    • Among the items that made it into the budget: The restoration of proposed cuts to the public library system; $95 million for the Fair Fares public transit discounts program for low-income New Yorkers; and funding for 5,000 new slots to “Work, Learn & Grow” to provide Summer Youth Employment Program participants with school year employment.

  • The air quality advisory for smoke from Canadian wildfires will remain in effect through Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. 

    • The governor's office also published a breakdown of what the different air quality index numbers mean, as well as where to find free N95 respirator masks. 

  • CUNY’s new strategic plan calls for adding nearly 300 new fully online programs by 2030 to help serve students who require or prefer a more flexible schedule. (New York Daily News)

In other reading:

  • The more modern trains being rolled out on the NYC subway (Gothamist)

  • Musicians once again get the chance to perform in the subway as MTA holds first audition in 3 years (ABC7 NY)

  • The 15 Hottest Lunch Spots in NYC Right Now (Eater NY)

The excitement around AI isn't just hype — the latest numbers on venture capital deal flow in New York prove it. 

NYC artificial intelligence startups raised $565 million across 26 deals in the first three months of 2023, according to a new analysis by Deloitte. (Crain's New York Business) 

The funding roundup in this very digest has been loaded with AI investments. Just this week:  

  • NYC-based Slang.AI announced on Tuesday a $20 million Series A investment round. The startup's AI voice-answering service may help you book your next restaurant reservation without waiting on hold. 

  • Brooklyn-based Metal, which is focused on enterprise application of large language models, announced a $2.5 million seed round.

  • And just today, Bloomberg and TechCrunch reported that Runway, a NYC-startup building generative AI tools for film and image content creators, raised $141 million in a Series C extension deal from a list of investors that includes Google, Salesforce, and Nvidia.

There has been exit activity as well. Ramp (a Tech:NYC member) announced this week its acquisition of another NYC-based startup, Cohere.io, which uses generative AI to automatically resolve customer support tickets.

  • Cohere.io's team will take the lead on developing AI tools that uncover time and money-saving opportunities for the 13,000+ customers of Ramp's corporate credit card and spend-management tools, according to Ramp. 

While it seems like AI interest has exploded only recently, ideas and use cases of AI have been brewing in the city's startup scene for years, as Deloitte's Ryan Hittner told Crain's. Hittner cited the number of post-seed level investments, representing funding for companies founded before the recent surge of interest in ChatGPT. 

Our take: The founding teams of Slang.AI and Metal previously held roles at a list of NYC tech companies that includes Spotify, Google, Meta and Datadog. That's further evidence of how the AI deals we are seeing today have been brewing in the city's ecosystem long before widespread interest in the technology took off late last year.   

In other reading:

  • Rooftops, cafes and Zoom rooms: Libraries evolve to serve remote workers (Washington Post)

  • How one company is redesigning mentorship for hybrid work (HR Brew) 

  • Should I Use an AI to Write My Wedding Toast? (Wired)

  • IP Fabric, a NYC-based automated network assurance startup, raised $25 million in Series B funding. One Peak Partners led the round and was joined by Senovo and Presto Ventures.

  • Runway, a NYC-based AI tools provider for film and image content creators, raised $141 million in a Series C extension funding. Participating investors include Google, Nvidia, Salesforce, and others.

  • Venn Software, a NYC-based provider of employee cybersecurity and compliance SaaS, raised $29 million in Series A funding. New Spring Capital led the round.

  • July 13: In-person: Supercharging your company with AI, with OpenAI developer advocate Logan Kilpatrick and Primary partner Brian Schechter and principal Tobias Citron. Hosted by SVB. Register here.

  • July 19: In-person: Building a Proptech Startup, with Moved president Caren Maio, Stak Mobility CEO Diallo Powell, a16z partner Sumeet Singh, and Common founder Brad Hargreaves. Hosted by Stacklist. Register here.

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