Tuesday, August 12, 2025

August 12, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 

In today’s digest, the speediest new ferry, boardrooms turn into bedrooms, and the percentage of businesses that have actually adopted AI. 🏆

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  • All aboard. A new hybrid-electric ferry is sailing across the NYC waters as it provides service to and from Governors Island. The first-of-its-kind ferry can travel up to 66% faster than current ones. So it’s a ferry big deal... ⛴️ (PIX11)

  • The grades are in and the results are A+. Two years after the implementation of a citywide literacy program, state test scores for third through eighth graders are the highest in more than a decade. (New York Times)

  • And more good news on the horizon: The Legionnaires’ outbreak in Central Harlem may be slowing, as the number of new reported cases falls. However, officials note it’s too early to tell if the outbreak has passed its peak. (Gothamist)

    • As of Monday, there have been 90 confirmed cases, three deaths and 17 hospitalizations. (ABC New York)


In other reading:

  • A $340 million New York office makeover is converting boardrooms to bedrooms (Bloomberg)

  • Slimmer, but still one big oyster (New York Times)

  • The best meteor shower of 2025 is peaking tonight (August 12) 🌠 (Secret NYC)

Ramp’s Q2 2025 Business Spending Report offers a telling snapshot of where U.S. companies — including those in NYC — are placing their bets in this economy. And while tech spending is up, the broader AI story is more nuanced than you might expect.

What’s 🆕: The Ramp report analyzes corporate spending trends based on billions of aggregated, anonymized transactions from over 40,000 businesses using Ramp Bill Pay and corporate cards.

Here are three big takeaways from Q2’s report:

🤖 AI adoption just hit a speed bump.

  • After a year of relentless growth, AI adoption among U.S. businesses declined for the first time in 12 months. 

📊 But adoption is still way higher than official numbers suggest.

  • Ramp’s data shows 42% of businesses have adopted AI tools — a figure that’s 4.5x higher than U.S. Census Bureau estimates. 

  • That suggests AI is more embedded in day-to-day operations than policymakers and traditional surveys understand, especially in major hubs like NYC.

💸 Business spending beat expectations, with tech leading the charge.

  • Overall spend rose, even as tariff uncertainty shook trade-exposed sectors. 

  • Retailers and wholesalers rushed purchases ahead of potential cost increases, while construction and manufacturing spending slowed.

  • Meanwhile, tech companies — largely insulated from tariffs — posted the fastest spending growth, driven by an investment boom in AI, SaaS, and cloud services.

📍What it means for NYC: New York’s economy thrives on being future-forward, and this data is a window 

  • AI is embedded and investment is strong but uneven.

  • For the city’s tech leaders, founders, and policymakers, the goal is staying competitive and inclusive.

In other reading:

  • Office occupiers seek ways to improve vibrancy of space: CBRE (Facilities Drive)

  • Why you should use a password manager for all your secrets, not just logins (Wall Street Journal)

  • Help Fortune find America’s Most Innovative Companies 2026 (Fortune)

  • Confido, a New York-based AI financial operating system for consumer brands, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Footwork led the round, with participation from Watchfire Ventures, Barrel Ventures, Liquid 2, Boulder Food Groups, and Y Combinator.

  • Coverd.us, an NYC-based fintech platform gamifying financial wellness, raised $7.8 million in seed funding. Yolo Investments led the round and was joined by a16z speedrun, Volt Capital, WndrCo, Arbitrum Gaming Catalyst, Tusk Ventures, and others.

  • Mako, an NYC-based AI infrastructure company that builds intelligent agents to instantly generate and optimize GPU kernels, raised $10 million in seed funding led by M13, with participation from Torch Capital and Parable VC.


  • Profound, an NYC-based startup helping brands control how they appear in AI responses, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Sequoia Capital led the round, and was joined by Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Saga VC, and South Park Commons.

  • August 14: AI Agent Buildathon, for builders, AI-nerds, tech-enthusiasts, and investors. Register here.

  • August 16: Startup Brand Strategy + Design Workshop by Madeline & Co., a six-hour deep dive for founders to build their startup’s brand. Register here.

  • August 21: August Founder Dinner, for a curated group of pre-seed to series A founders, especially those building in B2B SaaS & AI. Register here.

  • August 26: Brderless x Rho Founder Breakfast, for a curated group of seed-stage founders (post raise) who are scaling or gearing up for Series A. Register here.

  • September 3-4: Go-To-Market: Building Distribution Engine that Scales, a two-day workshop for early-stage founders to master go-to-market strategy, build a scalable distribution engine, and get real feedback from top operators and founders. Register here.

  • September 10: NYC Summit, Primary’s annual invite-only conference, bringing together 2,000 top founders, VCs, and LPs. This year’s speakers include Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals), David Karp (Tumblr), Toyin Ajayi (Cityblock Health), Lina Khan (FTC), Kareem Amin (Clay), and more. Apply to attend here.

  • September 18-20: The Atlantic Festival relocates to NYC with its screenings, book talks, and more with influential thinkers including Scott Galloway, Keri Russell, Mark Cuban, H.R. McMaster, Robert Downey Jr., Richard Ayoade, David Letterman, Dr. Becky Kennedy, Tom Hanks, and many others. Register with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off one-day passes here.


  • September 23: Deep Tech Forum + Startup Showcase in NYC, bringing together deep tech startups from across the globe alongside corporate innovation leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners, for a full day of mainstage sessions and startup exhibitions. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.

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