Wednesday, July 9, 2025

July 09, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, July 9, 2025 

In today’s digest, self-driving cars in NYC, street fair season, and AI’s rise in the banking sector. 🏦

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  • Self-driving cars may be on their way to NYC. (Tech:NYC member) Waymo’s first self-driving taxi drove around the Big Apple this week — with a human behind the wheel — to start collecting data. 🚙 (Bloomberg)

    • New York state law requires a vehicle operator to be present while autonomous tech is in use, meaning Waymo won’t be able to offer a robotaxi service in the city just yet.

  • NYC’s newest “museum” features rare dinosaur fossils, the largest piece of Mars on Earth, and an Apple-1 computer — one of 50 machines hand-built by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. (Gothamist)

    • As part of “Geek Week” (their words not ours!), Sotheby’s is offering public viewing of more than 100 objects of natural history, science, and space exploration before they hit the auction block through July 15.

  • It’s street fair season, New York! Take a look at the dozens of block parties happening throughout the city this July, ranging from food festivals to music and cultural fairs. 🕺💃 (Secret NYC)

In other reading:

  • WeWork signs new lease in Downtown Manhattan, expanding NYC bet (Bloomberg)

  • First-ever North America Pastry Championship debuts at 2025 Fancy Food Show in NYC (amNY)

  • 10 NYC pizzerias ranked among top 50 in U.S. (Patch New York)

AI reaches Wall Street! 💰

  • The banking sector is increasingly leveraging technology, and new data-enabled AI can drive progress even further and faster than before. 

  • AI can boost efficiency, allow for growth, manage risk and regulatory needs, and positively influence customer experience. 

📈 This momentum will only grow over the next several years. 

And Wall Street is already investing heavily to compete.

  • J.P. Morgan recently rolled out an LLM Suite to 200,000 employees and has added Gen AI in call centers for agents that deal with Chase Bank customers. 

  • Goldman Sachs is rolling out a Gen AI assistant across the firm, known as GS AI Assistant, that can tap into a variety of LLMs that the company has approved.

  • Citi is accelerating its AI strategy as well, with tools like a program that assists with vocal responses for its consumer bank operations.

  • Bank of New York Mellon now employs dozens of AI-powered “digital employees” that have company logins and work alongside its human staff. 

🗽 Why it matters for NYC: As the capital of finance and a leader in AI, New York is uniquely positioned at the epicenter of this transformation. 

  • Nearly 25% of the city’s GDP comes from finance.

  • NYC fintech startups raised $6.71 billion in 2024 alone.

These banks are making targeted investments in AI — and even more are in the process of implementing Gen AI — as the sector sets out to keep innovating and succeeding like other sectors that have embraced the technology.

Dig deeper:

In other reading:

  • America has pulled off the impossible. It made getting a passport simple. (Wall Street Journal)

  • AI is changing the world faster than most realize (Axios)

  • TSA will no longer require all passengers to take shoes off at airport security checkpoints (CNN)

  • Castellum, an NYC-based financial crime compliance platform, raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. Curql, led, joined by BTech Consortium, Framework Venture Partners, Spider Capital, Remarkable Ventures, and Cameron Ventures.

  • Nominal, an NYC-based automation platform for finance ops, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Next47 led, joined by Workday Ventures, Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures.

  • Polimorphic, an NYC-based company using AI to digitize resident services for local governments and their constituents, raised $18.6 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, with continued support from M13 and Shine.

  • Company Ventures’ Grand Central Tech Residency, for pre-idea founders to seed stage teams looking to accelerate wherever they are on the journey from company concept exploration to company launch. Apply by July 23 here.

  • NYCEDC has released a request for proposals for a Founder Alumni Program and is seeking operators to build a dynamic, long-term network of program alumni from its entrepreneurship programs. Download the RFP and apply by August 4 here. 

  • The third annual Environmental Tech Lab, an accelerated innovation program ensuring that New Yorkers can continue to enjoy safe drinking water and a clean environment as the climate continues to change in unpredictable ways. Apply by August 8 here.

  • Yale’s Computer Science Fair on September 19, featuring hundreds of students and tech companies. Companies can apply to attend by August 30 here.

  • See NYC is gathering 150 New Yorkers for a three-day summer camp-style experience to share ideas to build a better New York City. Apply here.

  • Company Ventures is hosting AI Review events, a year-long conversation series on the current and future state of AI. Submit your AI-related event for consideration here.

  • Union Square Ventures’ “usvwork” — a casual coworking day once a month for founders and builders in NYC. Apply here.

  • Forum Ventures is accepting pitches to its Forum for Founders program. The firm is investing in 30+ companies over the next three months, offering $100K and admission to its pre-seed accelerator to provide personalized GTM and sales support. Apply here.


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