Monday, June 29, 2026

New York City’s outdoor public pools opened this weekend, and morning swimmers are in for a treat: NYC is doubling its Adult Lap Swim program this summer, with weekday morning swim sessions for adults only returning to 10 outdoor pools — two in every borough — for the first time since before the pandemic. 🏊 (Hell Gate) 

Good thing pools are open, because we’re in for a schvitz, New York! 🥵 Forecasters say we could hit 100 degrees later this week, with heat index values climbing as high as 110 degrees. ☀️ (Time Out New York) 

If your GPS tells you to turn on to Jalen Brunson Boulevard, you’re not hearing things. The city is temporarily co-naming 18 Manhattan streets after every member of the championship Knicks, with each location matching a player’s jersey number. 🏀 (NY Daily News)

NYC Dept. of Sanitation is giving away five orange and blue litter baskets (NYCSanitation/X)

A map of the best burgers in New York City (Eater) 

A mobile glitter bar, rainbow cowgirl, and Bowen Yang: What we saw at the NYC Pride March (Gothamist) 

FIFA AI Pro allows coaches, analysts, and technical staff to analyze thousands of match data points — including player movement, formations, and tactics — in seconds rather than hours.

The platform lets teams recreate matches in a 3D environment, generate visualizations like shot maps, and explore insights in every participating team’s language, giving all 48 national teams access to advanced analytics, regardless of budget.

Every World Cup player received a 360-degree body scan before the tournament, creating digital twins accurate to within 1-2 millimeters that officials can use during VAR reviews instead of generic avatars. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

The tournament also upgraded from 12 to 16 high-resolution tracking cameras, while sensors inside the ball capture its movement and every touch 500 times per second, helping officials review even the closest offside calls.

AI powers an Intelligent Command Center that combines security, ticketing, transportation, venue operations, retail, and live camera feeds into one real-time dashboard across all 16 host cities.

Meanwhile, AI-stabilized referee cameras reduce visual jitter by roughly 50%, giving fans a much smoother first-person view of the action.

And, with New York City serving as one of the tournament’s host cities, we get to experience these AI-powered innovations firsthand. 

With this app you can point your camera at any real cat and identify the breed on-device (CatchCat) 

The rise of ‘bring your own AI’ to work as leaders fall behind (Forbes) 

When did the first-day-of-work outfit become so casual? (Wall Street Journal) 

Arca, an NYC-based AI-native wealth management company, raised $64 million across seed and Series A rounds. General Catalyst led the $48.5 million Series A round and was joined by Index Ventures and Venrock.

Cadence, an NYC-based regulated-AI chronic care platform, raised $100 million in a financing round led by Spark Capital.

General Intuition, an NYC-based game-trained AI agents platform, raised $320 million in a Series A fundraising round led by Khosla Ventures with participation from General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos, and others.

Hera, an NYC-based elder care company, raised $27 million in Series A funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Accel, IA Ventures, and others.

Kalshi, an NYC-based federally regulated prediction-markets exchange, raised $1 billion in a Series F fundraising round led by Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Morgan Stanley and ARK Invest.

Lama AI, an NYC-based AI-native loan origination platform, raised $10 million in a Series A fundraising round led by EJF Ventures with participation from Fin Capital, 1st & Main Growth Partners, and others.

Neurometric AI, an NYC-based automated token engineering platform, raised $4 million in a seed fundraising round led by Betaworks and ex/ante with participation from Jason Calacanis, LAUNCH, Everywhere.vc, Dharmesh Shah, and others.

Ornn AI Inc., an NYC-based AI compute marketplace, raised $33 million in a seed round led by a16z crypto fund and Galaxy Ventures with participation from Nordstar and SV Angel.

Samepage, an NYC-based product management intelligence platform, raised $4.9 million from Craft Ventures, Freestyle VC, and Glasswing Ventures.

Titan, an NYC-based banking AI compliance platform, raised $3 million in a seed round led by Entropy Ventures.

Warp, an NYC-based startup using AI to automate payroll compliance and employee management, raised $60 million in Series B funding. Battery Ventures led the round and was joined by Peak XV, Sound Ventures, and Y Combinator.

July 2: ​NYC Tech & Startup Mixer, putting founders, engineers, investors, recruiters, freelancers, and mentors in the same room for a night of straight‑up networking. Register here. 

July 3: TechWalk | NYC, a chance to network, share ideas, and build relationships in a healthy alternative to the average happy hour. Register here.

July 4: July 4th NY Founders Gathering, for New York founders who want to meet peers and enjoy July 4th with good company. Register here.

July 5: Founders, Funders, or Just Finders, a takeover of the Seville Hotel for an evening of cocktails, candid conversation, and the kind of warm intros that beat any cold email. Register here. 

July 8: NYC Fintech Coffee, for fintech founders, investors, and enthusiasts to gather around and talk everything fintech. Register here.

July 8: Blind Tasting, Expert Vision: An Evening at Macallan HQ with Baselayer, a gathering of NYC’s best founders, bankers, and agentic commerce leaders for an intimate evening of high-end pours and high-stakes competition. Register here. 

July 8: The NYC Breakfast Club: Checkout the Future, a room of DTC operators talking through what's actually shifting in how people (and machines) buy. Register here. 

July 8: Fierce Founders Coworking Day, a day of working alongside the FF team and other female founders in the community, because everything’s better IRL. Register here. 

July 14: Assets & Access NYC at Pubkey, a founder, operator, and investor meetup. Register here. 

July 16: Founders Basketball New York City, a growing community of startup founders and investors who love to connect over business and buckets. Register here. 

July 19: ​West Village Pizza Crawl, a four-stop journey through NYC’s most iconic slices — no pitches, no panels, just passion and pizza. ​ Register here. 

July 24: After Hours: NYC Tech Social at Maxwell Tribeca, where professionals across tech and fast-growing startups can step away from work, meet beyond their usual circles, and enjoy a great night out together IRL. Register here.